Being Responsible

I had banana cream pie for breakfast.  It was quite nutritious.  The banana was full of potassium and other goodies.  The crust had grains.  The pudding had dairy and carbohydrates.  I love being an adult.  I can eat whatever whenever.  One night when I was about 4 or 5 years old my dad came home with three pints of ice cream.  Ice cream came in small containers because refrigerators didn’t have freezers.  They only had a small place in the upper inside corner for ice cube trays. My mom, sisters and I each got a half a pint.  My dad got a whole pint!  I thought that was awesome.  Right there I purposed that someday I would be a man and eat a whole pint of ice cream at one sitting.

And now that I am an adult I had banana cream pie for breakfast.  Don’t get me wrong.  Being an adult isn’t a license for debauchery.  I didn’t eat the whole pie.  I was quite temperate.  Being an adult is being responsible.  It’s about not blaming others for everything.  Often one of the great faults of therapy is finding someone like mom or dad to blame for our poor choices.  Life is about choices.  Life is about making responsible choices and if they don’t go the way we hoped, we man-up and determine to do better the next time.

One of the important things to understand about the plan of salvation is that while Jesus paid the price for our sins, He did not accept the blame.  The blame is ours.  We are just amazingly blessed to have a loving God who says, “Okay.  I forgive you. I will accept the penalty.”   That’s what confession is about.  It is accepting the blame.

Written by Roger Bothwell on July 9, 2014

Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org