Accountability

Today I got to thinking about accountability. That word carries so much weight. Accountability at work, to our spouse, our children, ourselves. Life is full of it. Two things brought this to mind.
The first would be that I am trying to get back into a healthy lifestyle. The first thing you'll read from anyone who has been successful at loosing and maintaining weight and keeping to an exercise regimen is that you have to keep a journal. By writing down every bite that goes into my mouth, I am unable to use the excuse "I haven't really eaten anything today. I don't know why I feel terrible, bloated, heavy, etc etc." Writing down makes me have to be accountable. If only to myself. But when it's there in front of me, it's hard to ignore.
The second thing that made me think of this was my kid. His phone (or so he claims) pocket dials on its own quite frequently. He's called my dad, my mom, my husband and today was myself. I decided to sit and listen. I wasn't expecting to hear anything bad from him, but my curiosity was peaked. After all, he was on the bus and it's been a LONG time since I've rode a school bus and I wanted to see if things have changed. Not surprisingly they haven't. Yelling kids, loud music and the occasional swear word.
As I previously stated, I didn't catch him doing anything wrong, but it sure was fun to see his face when he came home. Someone had been singing the song "I'm a Barbie Girl" and he was shocked that I knew that. So, we talked about what I'd heard and who some of the major players in my eavesdropping were. This whole situation also opened a door for he and I to talk about God. After all, I told him, I won't always be on the other end of an open line "spying" on him, but God is always there. There is no "end call" button on a phone to end what He is able to see and hear from us. It was a great way to talk to him about being accountable for his actions, even when he doesn't think anyone is listening or watching.
This also made me aware of myself. It's easy to let little things slide. A bite of chocolate here, a slip of using the Lord's name in vain here. It's easy to "get away" with these things when we don't believe there's anyone to hold us to anything. But, how foolish. That bite of chocolate turns to 3 (or 4 or 5 in my case) and eventually shows up on our waistline. Whether or not we owned up to it. But when we stop and actually think about what we are eating, we are less likely to overindulge.
This same analogy can be used with God. It's easy to let things slide when we don't have our Christian friends around or someone who is going to take offense to our profanity or our less than honorable choices. It's easy to think that we are exempt from certain sin because God is not a physical image in front of us to hold us to standards that we know are there.
After thinking about all of this, I've come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, it's just me and God. At the end of time, it's just me before God. You have to face the consequences and be held accountable for those things that we have let slide time and again without repenting and seeking true forgiveness. Because, after all, God has an open line to us at all times. If that doesn't scream accountability I sure don't know what does. That is the lesson I'm trying to instill in my boys while still learning it myself.