Day 19 of 31 Days of My Single Life

Responsibility is a big deal in my world right now. In my classroom I often encourage students to "Take responsibility for your own learning." (That's teacher-speak for "Do your work without me having to tell you to.") Responsibility is one of our school's Student Learner Outcomes: We will be responsible and take responsibility for our actions.

What you hear yourself saying over and over has a tendency to start seeping back into your own life.

Responsibility.

Sometimes we have to pull up our bootstraps and take on responsibility. Ok, I'll be in charge of that.

Sometimes we have to draw our boundaries and let someone else take responsibility. I don't know, that's not my jurisdiction. Ask so-and-so.

Sometimes we have to take responsibility for how things happened. Oops, yeah, that was probably my fault.

Sometimes we need to hold back and allow others to keep the responsibility they have undertaken. That's their baby, so I need to let them make that decision.

Sometimes we feel the pang of other people trying to push responsibility on us that isn't ours. You should know this even though you don't.

Sometimes we must have grace when no one is responsible, everyone wants to deflect responsibility, and you are being affected by the lack of leadership. This was inconvenient, can we do this differently? No, I'm not accusing you of doing it--ok, maybe I am. Ok, maybe no one is responsible, and I just need to keep my frustration to myself instead of trying to peg someone with it. *sigh* Next time we'll do this differently.

This is real life. At home, at work, with friends. Things happen and we're tempted to take charge out of someone else's hands or pin the guilt on an innocent party to make ourselves feel better or deflect responsibility for something we were in charge of or take on more than we can handle.

I come back to truth. If, when I stop and reflect, I realize it's my fault because it was my responsibility, I need to acknowledge the truth, even though it hurts.

I come back to grace.  If someone is frustrated at me because they mistakenly think I was responsible and fumbled, or if something did not happen to my convenience, I need to have grace and not transfer that frustration onto an innocent party.

Responsibility is HARD. I'm thankful God carries us where we are.

I love this pic. It's Boston in the summer. One day I'll visit Boston in the fall...