A CEO has taken on a new job, and the outgoing CEO says to him, "Sometimes you'll make wrong choices. You will. You'll mess up. When that happens, I have prepared three envelopes for you. I left them in the top drawer of the desk. The first time it happens, open #1. The second time you mess up, open #2. The third time, open #3."

For the first few months, everything goes well. Then the CEO makes his first mistake, goes to the drawer, opens up envelope #1, and the message reads, "Blame me." So he does: "This is the old CEO's fault. He made these mistakes. I inherited these problems." Everybody says, "Okay." It works out pretty well.

Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his second mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #2. This time he reads, "Blame the board." And he does: "It's the board's fault. The board has been a mess. I inherited them. They're the problem." Everybody says, "Okay, that makes sense."

Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his third mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #3. The message reads: "Prepare three envelopes."

There comes a time in everyone's life, when we simply MUST stop blaming everyone and everything else for our problems.  Although life cannot be summed up simply, and there are often deep-seated reasons for why we are what we are, and why we do what we do, sooner or later we have to own the struggles, mistakes, and foibles that seem to trip us up on a regular basis.  

We must own these challenges, and ask God to help us work through them, over them, or around them.  He's willing.  When we're finally tired of the "blame-game," God can take us places that we have never been.