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            It seems that one of the most difficult things for any of us to do is to hold ourselves accountable for our own attitudes and actions. That experience can be so painful that people will do almost anything to avoid it. The standard procedure is to make an excuse that will place the responsibility on someone or something outside of us. For example, a child coming home from school with a failing grade might explain his or her failure by saying; “The teacher doesn’t like me.” An athletic team, after losing an important game, might point an accusing  finger at the referee or the umpire. Even though things go wrong in a marriage; it is predictable that the   husband will blame the wife and the wife will blame the husband. If war breaks out between two nations, it is almost certain that each will accuse the other of having fired the first shot.

          How typical that is of human beings! We all have learnt well the fine art of justifying ourselves. Let us fail at something, and our first impulse is to reach for an excuse.  But that tendency, although natural, is also dangerous. Our lives will never amount to very much until we drop the excuses and start holding ourselves accountable.

          Having said this we also know that there are some legitimate excuses. Life can be at times terribly  cruel and unfair. Yet although it may be true that we have some legitimate excuses, we         do not have to use them unless we choose to.

         Each person has the opportunity to be better than we are. With the loving grace that God always gives, we can become more genuine, more lovable and more caring. But we will never do that if we go through life making excuses for ourselves. We must somehow find the way and the courage to hold ourselves  accountable for our own attitudes and actions.

        We all have a sense of right and wrong. And we all know how easy it is to blame someone or  something besides ourselves. It may be anything that will soothe the conscience and enable us to feel better about ourselves.

         We all know that we have done wrong. And we all know how easy it is to blame someone or  something besides ourselves. It may be heredity, our home, our friends, or society in general – anything but ourselves. By placing fault outside ourselves, we do not have to do anything. We can feel sorry for ourselves instead of being ashamed of ourselves. That is a neat little trick we have learnt, but it is also deadly destructive. We can never recover from our mistakes until we find the way and the courage to accept the responsibility for our mistakes.

        It will not be easy to give up our excuses. But it is Lent 2026! If we really try during Lent, Jesus will give us the grace necessary to replace our excuses with something much better – a life changed by His love and grace.  It is there waiting for us to act. What will you do this Lent 2026? Turn to Jesus or remain with your excuses.  It’s something to think about this Lent 2026.