Playing the Blame Game

Come on, let’s play the blame game.

Part of my day now is to watch Parliament’s question time not because it’s riveting, educational or even entertaining.

Like all television shows you get sucked into the plot and want to see what happens next?

Parliament’s question time is a bit like that.

On one side you have the government being questioned by the bad guys on the other side of the house about policies and comments.

The minister in charge will face a barrage of questions, and every time will deflect their response to the earlier government’s inadequacies.

Surely, after five years of governing, you would think the Labour government would accept and take responsibility for its own shortcomings and to be honest their mishandling of the economy.

Oh, but they are quick to trot out the opinions of the IMF, the United Nations, and point to where New Zealand sits in the OECD.

All very well. But when the polls show less confidence by the constituency at large in their ability to fix things, like housing, food shortages, health, and welfare, it doesn’t matter because someone from outside says their doing great.

This thing about blaming others is not new.

You must go back to the Garden of Eden because this is where it started.

That is, if you believe the bible account, but even if you are one of those people who believe in fairy tales, you must admit there is no other story like it.

The devil deceived eve. No one will ever dispute that fact.

The account in Genesis 3 reads ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Please note the conversation was between the devil and Eve, Adam was just a bystander.

⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Now Adam was a chap who walked and talked to God daily but this day, he knew, he had done wrong.

And uh, uh, he wasn’t going down for this

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so, I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹² The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

There it is right there, the start of the “BLAME GAME”

In life how many times have we played this game,

How many times have we not taken responsibility for our own actions?

Eve accepted she had been deceived by the greatest con artist ever.

She accepted responsibility for her actions but not Adam.

Sad to say but since then men have used that lame excuse for years, “Blame the wife”

So, you see what happens in our house of representatives is no different.

Throughout time mankind refuses to accept responsibility for the things which go wrong in life, it’s always someone else’s fault, It’s the weather, it’s the referee, it’s the rules or in the Labour Party’s case, Its nine long years of neglect.

We can all blame someone else for who and the way we are, but you know, no matter where we came from or whoever our parents are, they are not responsible for the person you see standing in the mirror.

 Psalm 130 says I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful; I know that full well.

You may have your flaws, but hey we all have them, but let’s move on and look for the real beauty that is in us.

Each one of us can blame something because of the way we look, the way we feel or the circumstances we are in.

I love this quote from Elenore Roosevelt No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

But take the lesson from the strength of Job, he accepted his inflictions and refused to blame anyone else.

Our leaders may blame the earlier government for their own inadequacies, but they are the ones in office and rather than looking forward, like the wife of Lot who kept looking behind and turned into a pillar of salt, and like this government, unable to move on.

Last word for ourselves and our government from Elenore Roosevelt

We can often change our circumstances by changing our attitude.