The best piece of advice my dad ever gave me (and what all young kids &millennials need to know)

I grew up admiring my dad a whole lot. He has played an integral part of my life, as most dads do and all dads should. I played harder when I heard him cheering at my volleyball games, I ran harder when I knew he was in the stands at my track meets, and I took shop class because my dad is a carpenter.


He has told me many things over the years, all of which have impacted my life but one thing he drilled into me growing up is the key piece of intelligence that all millennials are accused of missing, and I have to agree that MOST millennials have never picked up on.

I know there are a lot of people that are going to disagree with this statement and accuse it of being harsh and judgmental, but it has had such a huge impact in my life and since I was taught it and live by it, I will attest to the damages and the successes that knowing it has given me.



My dad always said:

It's YOUR fault.


It's your fault if your bills are late, it's your fault that you bounced something in the bank, the car accident is your fault (there are DEFINITELY exceptions to this - hear me out), the detention is your fault, the ticket is your fault, etc. you get the idea...

"A person who is trusted with something must show that he is worthy of that trust." 1 Corinthians 4:2 ICB


While there are exceptions to each scenario, living by this simple statement has greatly affected my adult life. I drive more carefully, I feel the weight of late bills more deeply, I feel the responsibility of overpaying money that I don't actually have, I feel the responsibility to creditors that have lent money...

If we as parents teach our children this simple truth, perhaps in more gracious and loving ways, our children will succeed as adults and learn to feel responsibility more heavily.

There have been ways that this statement has impacted me negatively, to be sure. I have felt the weight TOO heavily at times, to the point where I have then secluded myself to dealing with issues on my own. I have punished myself for it by regarding myself as lowly, foolish, or even worthless. There have been times where I would not even pray about the situation because of the responsibility that I had for the issue because if I caused this to happen, why should I not figure it out for myself to correct it.

If you scrutinize those times though, they were the ones that I put my perspective on myself and not what God could do in the situation.

They were the times that my faith was tried the strongest because I fought against myself with knowing who could/should REALLY fix the situation. The times that I listened to the enemy's lies instead of the truths and promises of my Heavenly Father. It's always a balance, but one that is so worth discovering early on in life.

Learning that it's not the banker's fault that your account is under, it's not the creditor's fault that your house or car was repossessed, it's not the phone person's fault that they can't solve the problem, it's not the light's fault that you ran it, it's not the baby's fault that you lost your cool, it's not your husband/wife's fault that _____________ fill in the blank...There are so many excuses and people and places to blame, but if we learn to take more responsibility for things, our world really would be an entirely different place.

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