A selfish choice.

A bad decision.

I make them…

You make them….

and sometimes we just don’t want to admit it.

It was foolish.  We just weren’t thinking.

Or – we were thinking – but it was all about what we wanted.

Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.

If we work hard enough at it, we can rationalize anything.

Make excuses.

Avoid owning up to what we did what we said.

We can also become very good at blaming others for the consequences of choices we made.  One of my favorite scenes in the movie, The Shack, is when he asks God (who is a woman in this part) why she punishes us and she says that she doesn’t have to punish us.  The consequences of our sins are punishment enough.

Amen!

As I’m reading about David’s life in 2 Samuel, I realize that one of the qualities David possessed was the ability to quickly admit it when he did something wrong.  Sure – there were times that people like Nathan had to point it out to him.  But then David immediately owned up to it and took responsibility for the consequences.

Even when the consequence was the death of his young son……….

He didn’t blame anyone else.  He admitted his sin and repented.

David is a good role model for us when it comes to dealing with our sin and its consequences.  God wants us to admit it and own it and repent.  When we ask, he will help us grow in wisdom and grow our faith as we deal with the trials and sorrows that our bad decisions cause in our lives.

God walks with us through the muck and the mess we cause – guiding us, loving us, giving us strength and hope.

When we let him, God will help us – like he helped David –  develop into men and women after God’s own heart.

Thank you, Abba Father.