I am reading a book called IT’S NOT MY FAULT by Dr.’s Henry Cloud and John Townsend. These two have also penned the well known book BOUNDARIES. It is not as you may think when you read the title! This book, and I am only on page 56, has dealt with the opposite of allowing me to blame it on someone else or think passively about my own actions. It has not just been an eye opener but more of a revelation and a wakeup call to my well crafted way of thinking that I am so excited to share bits and pieces of it with you!
The first chapter addresses owning my own life. It is not saying that I have the power to control my life but that I must own my actions, decisions, attitude and how I will walk the path God has given me. It opens with two girls suing McDonald’s because they were overweight! I remember this case. As if this company was responsible for shoving hamburgers down these two girls’ mouths and they were all but helpless to escape. Luckily they did not win in court, saving humanity and common sense from a disastrous outcome, at least for a little while.
It then addresses the foundational sin in Genesis 3:12-13. When God confronts Adam in the Garden of Eden and asks him why he ate the fruit God himself told Adam not to eat Adam blames Eve. Adam also has the audacity to even blame God by saying that it was the woman God gave him that led him, Adam, to sin. When God confronts Eve she blames the serpent. Neither one takes responsibility for their own action!
One last glimpse into the first chapter because I don’t want to give it all away. God has given us “creative choice”.
“God has delegated two things to you:
The ability to create and respond to life
The reality consequences of those choices
Often you cannot choose what happens to you. You cannot determine which cards you are dealt. But you can always do something:
You can always create, seek, and find a range of options to determine how you will respond to what happens, and how you will play the cards in your hand.”
Every time I have to put this book down I am charged with wanting to change something about myself, about my way of thinking. Chapter two deals with just that, learning to change your way of thinking!
