{"id":142,"date":"2012-07-19T13:46:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T13:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=142"},"modified":"2012-07-19T13:46:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T13:46:10","slug":"individual-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/07\/individual-responsibility.html","title":{"rendered":"Individual Responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently there are those that think when a child&#8217;s team plays a sport they all get a trophy so no one will feel left out. They are all treated the same, those that played hard and those who sat on the bench. That takes away incentive to be better, try harder, to be the winner.<\/p>\n<p>When Roger Federer won Wimbledon they didn&#8217;t give a trophy to all the players. He was the winner. He had spent hours practicing, sweating, listening to his coach&#8230;When Bubba Watson won the Masters they didn&#8217;t give a green jacket to every player. They recognized his dedicated effort and skill. These champions had dedicated their lives to becoming the best &#8211; and they were. No apologies.There is nothing wrong with being a winner. It is a recognition that you have tried harder, developed your skills more, worked more diligently. It is not a put down of the others it is a recognition of skill and hard work. We admire them \u00a0&#8211; or I do. And I resent when someone comes along and says that if you have worked hard and done your best and\u00a0dedicated\u00a0you life to a goal and\u00a0achieved\u00a0it, that\u00a0somehow\u00a0you\u00a0really\u00a0didn&#8217;t do that. What sort of reasoning is that? It takes away incentive.<\/p>\n<p>Ask the Olympians in the next couple of weeks what they think about the notion that they didn&#8217;t get there with their own hard work. Yes, there are coaches pushing them, family members supporting them, friends encouraging them and God-given talent but in the end they are the ones who have trained, sweat, agonized, suffered the injuries&#8230;There achievement is a singular accomplishment. They will not apaologize for their having won. Nor should they. We will all applaud loudly and be thrilled for them.<\/p>\n<p>We are all unique individuals. God made us that way and one day we will stand before Him individually and answer for our lives. We cannot pass it off to a group. We face Him alone. God isn&#8217;t into &#8220;group think&#8221; or &#8220;passing the buck&#8221;. We are responsible for our achievements and our failures. Our sins. We will not be able to blame it on our parents, our siblings, our culture, our society&#8230;Adam tried to blame Eve, Eve blamed the serpent&#8230;and see where it got them &#8211; and us.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately when we do stand before God in all our nakedness and He sees everything we ever thought or did&#8230;we have and Advocate in Jesus and will find mercy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently there are those that think when a child&#8217;s team plays a sport they all get a trophy so no one will feel left out. They are all treated the same, those that played hard and those who sat on the bench. That takes away incentive to be better, try harder, to be the winner.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-personal-thoughts","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Individual Responsibility - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/07\/individual-responsibility.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Individual Responsibility - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently there are those that think when a child&#8217;s team plays a sport they all get a trophy so no one will feel left out. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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