Each person is tempted when he is
lured and enticed by his own desire.
—James 1:1
My sister was all the way across the room, minding her own business, when I dropped a platter of spaghetti and meat sauce, dousing the floor, wall, and me. I pointed at her and said, “Look what you made me do!”
In the adult world, where temptation and sin prowl, “Look what you made me do” is blamed on heredity, circumstances, society—or the devil (Flip Wilson’s signature line: “The devil made me do it”). The finger of blame is even pointed at God: “God made me the way I am—It’s not my fault!”
Ax the blame game. Jesus said it’s an inside job: “From within . . . come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within” (Mk 7:21–23).
Don’t feed it. Fight it.