Gary Simpson

My mother was particular.  She wanted to know where her children were all of the time.  If she didn’t, it was our fault for not telling her because she expected to know.  She would not let us go over to the next neighborhood to play baseball because of certain of the kids who lived there.  I’ll not mention their names.  But she was always glad to have boys over to play around our house.  And one of those boys was Gary.  Gary played baseball with us along with his older brother, Buzz.  But Gary wasn’t very good at baseball.  Gary always blamed his clumsiness on his baseball glove.  So one day, Gary came over with a new glove, and was it a dandy!  It had long fingers with buttery smooth leather that just seemed to grab a baseball.  But Gary still kept dropping fly balls, even with his new glove.  After his third failure, he threw his new glove down in the dirt, picked it up, and threw it down again.  And then he drew back and threw his new glove as far as he could into the weeds and stormed off.  The rest of us were stunned.  But we knew Gary.  And, sure enough, in a few minutes, he was back looking for his new glove in the weeds.  Hey sometimes we are like Gary.  We just can’t take responsibility for our own problems.  It’s easier to blame our circumstances.  We could do better if we had more money.  We would be successful if it weren’t for our family background.  If the teacher were fair, we would have better grades.  If the boss wasn’t so picky, we wouldn’t have been fired.  And on and on and on.  King Solomon said in Proverbs12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes …”  Gary had a lot of confidence in himself.  Too bad he didn’t have as much humility.  Hey, how about you?  Are you ready to take responsibility for your actions?  If you are, you are wise, but if you aren’t, well … just read the verse above a few more times.