Whatever Happens

Do you excuse your own bad behavior like I do? So many times I can excuse my own impatience or unkind comment by basically quoting the old playground excuse: "She (or he) started it!". As if someone else's bad behavior was responsible for mine! The one thing I always tell my kids is that the only thing we are really responsible for is ourself and our own reaction to things. So, why do I miss when I am shirking that responsibility?

I suppose it's easy to miss when you're close to the situation, but I've recently been challenged to be more vigilant in catching my own self-justification. The challenge came from a short phrase of Scripture that I had read many times before, but this time I took the time to really think about it.

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ."(Philippians 1:27a) "Whatever happens". That "whatever" tells me that I have no excuses for poor behavior. As someone who professes to be, not just a Christian, but a committed follower of Jesus, how I react reflects not only on me, but on the gospel of Christ as well. I don't have room for excuses. Of course, I am human and will, at times, react poorly, but it is at those times that how I handle myself becomes even more important. It is then that I have to stand up and admit my wrong and ask for forgiveness from the person I have wronged.

Personally, I am much better at self-justification than apologies. I am actually so good at it that I can fully convince myself that I did nothing wrong. But in order to "conduct myself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ" I'm going to have to get a whole lot better at being honest with myself as well as apologizing.

So, if you catch me at one of those moments when I need to be honest and apologize, recognize that I am still working on it. Then maybe you can gently remind me that I wrote this and you can say "Well, YOU started it!" and maybe you'll be able to see me conduct myself in a worthy manner. That is my hope and my goal.