The Devil Made Me Do It!

As a child, when I was being abused, my step-mother often brought up the fact that she was abused. That was her excuse for her behavior towards her children. She actually took it a step farther, telling us about how she had it so much worse than we did.

When I was a young adult, I had a neighbor who smacked her one year old. The excuse she gave me - "I was abused as a child. Studies have been done that prove people who were abused will abuse."

When I was a very young child, I was molested for a few years by a friend of my father's. The man had a speech impediment, and this was an acceptable excuse for what he did.

My father abusing us children blamed it on the fact that he suffers from codependency.

An abusive ex-boyfriend? He suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder.

And the worst blame-game? On the news, kids go into schools and open fire. The excuse - "God has a plan."

Everyone has an excuse. Everyone points a finger elsewhere.

The Devil Made Me Do It!

Oh how I wish I could use that excuse and just be excused from everything. Oh wait! I have something better... I can just use my Borderline Personality Disorder and/or my depression to get away with things. I forgot - I can simply snap, losing my temper because someone rejected me, and I can go into a rage and hurt people... and shrug my shoulders. "My BPD made me do it!"

Please, please, please do not get me wrong. BPD , codependency, Antisocial Personality Disorder... these are all serious and honest disorders. Depression is a serious and honest disorder. But these things are treatable. They do not define who you are. And they should not be allowed to be an excuse for bad behavior. I have had these excuses used to dismiss some very horrendous actions that were done to me. I will never use them to dismiss any action - no matter how slight or serious - that I do against others. It is an explanation of why I may do some stupid things, but it is not an excuse.

But My Disease is Not a Sin!

Of course it's not a sin. The disease, disorder, issue, problem, history, past, whatever - in itself, it is not a sin. But your actions (whether exaggerated because of a disease or not) are sinful. I cannot sleep with the football team because I wanted to feel loved... and then say "oh, it was just my disorder." My disorder might have limited the control I had on my emotions and subsequent actions... but my actions were still a sin. You cannot write that off.

Good News! 

There is good news though! Actually... there is Great news! Jesus didn't just come to save the mentally healthy (if He did, there would be very very few who actually would be saved). Jesus came to save all of us. Our sins are forgiven. We do not need to live in guilt and shame for sleeping with that football team. We do not need to suffer from the sins we committed which happened because of our compromised control.

God wants us to TRY to avoid sin. We're to try to live godly lives. But He knows we are not capable of succeeding. And He does understand that some of us have a much more difficult time of controlling our sinful behavior. But as long as we are putting forth an effort... as long as we are not simply pointing the finger at something else... God knows, understands, forgives, loves, and blesses us.