Guilt Trips

guilt trip–noun, Informal. a feeling of guilt or responsibility, esp. one not justified by reality.

I hate guilt trips. I hate it when someone says something, that in a round about way makes me feel bad about myself. People who give guilt trips often give them without realizing it. They guilt others because they are insecure and they need to project their failures onto others so that they can feel better about themselves. I know this because it has recently come to my attention that I give grade A, all expenses paid, first class guilt trips. There I said it, it's hard to admit but true.

This recently came to my attention because my daughter called me on it. We were at Chuck E. Cheese and she was talking to me while I was playing a game. Well my score started going down and I said, "there goes my score." She replied with, "wow, that made me feel guilty, I didn't make your score go down."

and you know what... she was right...

That got me thinking.
Did what I said teach her anything? No...
Did what I said encourage her? No...
Did what I said model the way of Jesus or set a good example? No...

What I said was a load of crap and GA called me on it. I felt bad about my score and wanted to blame someone else so I blamed her. How trivial, but true. I hate it when I learn gross stuff about myself. I also hate it when my children are the recipients of my baggage. So late Sunday night I apologized to GA and told her I have yet another bad habit I'm working on. I'm often reminded of a quote I heard in college, "Christianity is simply this, one beggar telling another where he found bread." D.T. Niles Jesus is perfect and I am not. All I can say is thank God the bread is free.