Wherever you go, there you are.

 heard a country western song by Blackhawk a few years ago that used the above phrase as a means to say that you can run away from a problem, but the problem may really be you, so you may never really run away from it. Then someone said an equally important thing that really made this song hit home, "What is the only common denominator in your marriages?"

There was only one honest answer, Me!

We truly like to play the blame game, like our bosses, our kids, our lack of money or a partner, whatever pops up in life we can fill in the blanks to find someone or something else to be the problem. But what I have come to realize is something God knew a long time ago, we are all flawed and imperfect, but the only person we can truly improve on is ourselves. Every situation we face is an opportunity to grow and improve on who we are, which may help us attract like minded people to be a part of our lives.

That is why (say it please, here we go again), working on ourselves in some fashion, like the 12 Steps or counseling, combined with a life long walk with the Lord, especially if we have been bruised or been a bruiser, insures we may start to get it right, and our problems become less about us pushing the envelope and more about just plain life. What once may have been chaos is now peace, but still has its moments. And you never know how well you have learned your lesson until faced with a similar situation again; and we may fail again, and again, but we have a mighty God to help us get up off the ground, dust our pants off and go try again.

The unlimited supply of grace and mercy provided by our Lord should be motivation to persevere until we get things right. And it's really good to have people around us who challenge us, encourage us, and keep us accountable to do that right thing. If we hide and don't communicate, it's a good bet that we don't want to face the problem, we just want to run away and be left alone. That's okay, but......

Wherever you go, there you are! And, the problem is never solved if we keep it locked inside our hearts.