Excuses
I think about this topic quite often. Honestly, I used to be the person that will shoot out some crazy excuse in a heartbeat, just to avoid saying no. It wasn't until I was watching this millionaire speak on tv that I began to look at excuses differently. The quote that she said has never left my mind and to this day I try to make sure I'm not doing this. What she said was "Excuses are just well planned lies." Man, I don't know about y'all but hearing that changed something in my heart. How many times has someone asked us to do something and we strategically search around our brains for something that we can tell that person just to get out of it, but it's really not the truth? You can tell you're lying if the reason you give does not directly affect your ability to carry out what was asked. For example: Your coworker asks you to come to lunch with them, in your heart you really can't stand that particular co worker, so you respond with "no thank you, I brought my lunch today." Had the other coworker that you always laugh and joke with asks you to go to lunch, you would gladly accept and not give the "excuse"(lie) of "I brought my lunch today, because bringing your lunch did not directly affect your ability to carry out what was asked. What stopped you was the way you felt toward that first coworker and you covered it up with what we know today as an excuse, AKA undercover lie. We have to just call it what it is. We make time for what is important to us and we make excuses for things we don't care about it. The thing about God is, He looks at the heart, the thing people cannot see. We can fool people every single day of our lives, but we cannot fool Him. This is something I've held close to my heart for years because as I stated earlier, I used to do this A LOT. We can't be fixed if we don't first know we are jacked up. So I encourage you today, examine your hearts, be mindful of your actions, be mindful or your words, be mindful of your reasons, be mindful.