Enough With the Excuses

I must admit I really have no tolerance for people who make excuses! I'm sure you've heard enough yourself and we could debate on those that are the most annoying. But the excuses most irritating to me would be:  giving an excuse for not sending an RSVP, excuses for lying and ANY excuse for being late! (That last excuse will literally throw my husband and I over the top! Probably because we both grew up in homes where our parents taught us the importance of being on time. We were held accountable on every occasion we were late.)

Excuses are defined as "rationalizations of behavior to avoid the true explanation or reason behind what you did or didn't do." (Webster's Online Dictionary) Excuses = Denial.

If that's true and excuses equal denial, then it's my opinion it should be very hard for Christians to use "excuses". I know there may be occasions when it really is the truth that you were stopped by a train or ran into traffic on the highway putting you behind your original schedule. But if you continually show up late to church, work, or the PTA meeting where you serve as a board member, your excuses are merely "a rationalizations of your behavior to avoid the true explanation or reason behind what you did or didn't do!"

Excuses are an easy way out! Take responsibility for your actions. If you show up late to a meeting where people are waiting on you so they can start, apologize and in the future leave ten minutes earlier allowing yourself enough time to arrive on time. If you overlooked the RSVP and didn't respond to the party invitation on time, call the host and apologize for your stupidity, don't just ignore it!

I mentioned one other excuse above, the excuse to lie! Really there isn't ANY excuse in which lying is acceptable (Proverbs 19:5,9) and it baffles me to witness so many who continue to excuse their lying without ever considering the consequences. Revelation 21:8 tells us "liars shall have their place in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." We better be careful when we communicate incorrect information to someone, or make false accusations about people, or lie to cover up our own mistakes.  Lying is sin...excusing ourselves from this behavior will only distance us farther from God.