Many things can be made better. And certainly with the gift of hindsight we readily see our areas for improvement. But room for improvement is not the same as doing something wrong. And we can humbly commit to our journey of growth without accepting blame that is not ours to own.
To be sure, we sin when we know to do good, but we don’t do it. And perhaps a case can also be made when it’s reasonable that we should know better but we’ve allowed ourselves to remain ignorant.
All the same, we’re human, which means we’re constantly learning and growing. There’s no expectation for perfect execution even after years of practice. And we should always have a heart that’s willing to make things better as we grow in our practice of love. But this doesn’t mean we have to accept blame for what was lacking yesterday just because we know better today.
These both can be true at the same time – we’re not to blame and we have room to improve. But our tendency to play the blame game runs deep. And we will naturally become more defensive when we feel blamed unfairly. As such, we’re prone to focus so much on resisting blame that we miss our opportunity for growth.
While we don’t have to accept blame and unwarranted accusations on our heart motives, we can still accept those many areas that could be improved. This allows us to focus on stewarding what we know to do today rather than debating endlessly about what didn’t happen yesterday. The blame game rarely produces any true winners. But we become as iron sharpening iron when we focus on helping each other to grow.
In the end, there’s no need to get defensive when others blame you for what you didn’t know yesterday. Commit to knowing and doing better today without the need to accept blame that’s not yours to own.
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