I have a bone to pick with people who pass the buck to God for their lack of personal responsibility. This happened recently when a relative of the five year old boy who shot and killed his two year old sister with the gun his parent’s bought him for his birthday said, “It’s God’s will.”

Growing up in the Bible belt I heard this rationalization countless times; like when a young man in town with a history of alcohol abuse once again drove drunk and killed a car load of innocent people. To me passing the buck for the bad choices we make and the thoughtless actions we take is a cop out. It’s not a loving God’s will that so many lives are negatively impacted because a five year old child was given a deadly weapon or a young man selfishly did not prevent himself from endangering others.

The God of my belief gave me the power of choice. That means God wants me to be responsible for thinking before I act, for caring how my behavior will impact me and someone else, and for accepting personal responsibility for when the choices I make go wrong. One of those is anticipating how giving a child a deadly weapon is going to turn out well.