No excuses

Language learning has brought out a character flaw of mine that needs to go away. I like to make excuses. Correction comes. I have an excuse. I don’t know if it is insecurity or pride but I don’t like to be wrong. Since I have trouble pronouncing all these new words correctly, I get lots of correction. Sometimes it is frustrating and I lose sight of the goal- learning the language.

What purpose do excuses have? They temporarily make me feel better or even justified in my actions. What is wrong with excuses? First of all, they get in the way of progress. If I focus on the why I can’t or didn’t, I have less energy to focus on getting it right the next time. I also waste my time as well as the other person’s time. And lastly excuses make it seem like I don’t really want to change. So I have been trying to throw out the excuses and focus on growth not only in language learning but in my relationships with others. For me, it will take some time but hopefully I am seeing some progress.

With God, there are no excuses. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The good news is that God knows we are sinners. We don’t need excuses. We need Jesus and God’s forgiveness. If we focus on our excuses, we may miss out on being the person God is wanting us to be.