It's been cold and windy in North Dakota for three days. All that time it's been cold in our office, and we've been shivering while we worked. I've been muttering and blaming the weather for our discomfort.

Now the wind has stopped and it's still cold in our office! Clearly, we have an equipment malfunction, and I just now called to have a repair person check it out. If I had called on Monday, we'd be warm by now.

In our lives, it's easy to blame people or circumstances for our problems. A family member, the weather, or God take the brunt of our discontent. Then we discover that no one is to blame, there's just some adjustment that needs to be made. As long as we're in blame mode, we ignore or avoid actions which would actually make our lives better. When we set aside blame (and the muttering that accompanies it!) we can take action and see improvement.

It's good to ask ourselves from time to time what situations are being held back by blame. Then we can turn blame off and start addressing the real causes of our discomfort. Then things can get better!