Not infrequently one hears the questions, "Why has this trouble come upon me? What have I done to deserve this?" And there may be a tendency to try to find some external cause for the difficulty or perhaps some other person upon whom one can fasten the blame. This is a familiar form of sidestepping the issue, and it should not be permitted to divert our attention from the point of responsibility. One experiences what one allows in his consciousness.
We are responsible for our own thought and what we allow to enter our experience. Once we settle this point with ourselves, we shall not waste time in useless condemnation or criticism. We shall face the situation honestly and proceed prayerfully to examine our thinking. Only in this way will we uncover the wrong beliefs involved and then be in a position to exclude them from consciousness and hence from our experience.
Using subterfuge and finding excuses are as old as the story of Adam and Eve. Mrs. Eddy says: "If malicious suggestions whisper evil through the mind's tympanum, this were no apology for acting evilly. We are responsible for our thoughts and acts; and instead of aiding other people's devices by obeying them,—and then whining over misfortune,—rise and overthrow both. If a criminal coax the unwary man to commit a crime, our laws punish the dupe as accessory to the fact. Each individual is responsible for himself."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 119;
