Accountabilty: Who's Your Accountability Partner

In this life at one time or another, we all have someone that we are accountable to or for...someone we have to be accountable to. Whether for your children, grandchildren, your spouse, your boss, your Pastors, to yourself and most important of all, we are all accountable to God - we are all called to accountability. Sometimes we seem to rebel against the act of being accountable because we are like unruly children who have a problem with anyone or anything that has authority or is accountable for our actions.

Let me give you a simple childlike example. My one and only grandson is six years old. When he was, I think about three years old, he and his father, our son, Andrae were at our house visiting. Andrae had just gotten off work. He was tired, so he went and laid down leaving Jr. with my husband, who Jr. affectionately calls Pop or his main man. Well Pop was in the kitchen cooking and trying to keep Jr. away from the hot stove. There were several times that Jr. was told to go into the living room, sit down and watch TV. After a few more times of going back and forth with Jr. trying to get him to listen and do what he was told, that boy came back into the kitchen once again, and was told to go sit down. This time instead of doing what he was told, that child peeked around the corner to see if his father was still sleeping and when he saw that all was clear with his Dad sleeping, he looked up at my husband, his pop and whispered, "No".

Jr. is like many of us today. God tells us what we need to do, but we are like unruly children - good one minute and bad the next...children who go about our merry way, ending up doing what we want to do with our Burger King mentality trying to always have it our way without having any accountability for our actions.

So I want to talk about being accountable to God first and His word and then as we are accountable to Him it is easy to be accountable to each other, for how can you love God who you have not seen and not love each other enough to take ownership and be accountable for your actions and show some clear accountability to each other?

When you look at the word accountable, you must first look at the word account, which means, to think of as; to probe into; To analyze; to consider. In order to be accountable, we have to analyze and consider all we do, before we do it, and surmise how it will effect our life and the lives of those around us - we have to be accountable. We have to take into account the primary factor that brings about the end result. It's called being accountable.

There are steps taken when you are accountable for any given situation: #1- you must first discern what is taking place (2) you must then look into the dynamics of what is taking place (3) you must determine what action needs to be taken and (4) you must bring about a righteous resolution. I say righteous because some things that you may think are right may not be godly resolutions. Being responsible for your actions, indicates that you are accountable and make good on whatever that is. Anyone can say I am accountable and then ignore the responsibility and the outcome which they alone have initiated.

Let's take a closer look at this as we get into our scripture which is found in the book of Ruth. In processing the events that took place, it seems that Ruth may have taken the time to surmise the situation that was taking place in her life. First of all, how could she leave a woman that she no doubt, had a great love for. A woman that she most likely had learned a lot from in the ten or more years they had known each other. This was not just any woman, but Naomi became a mother figure to Ruth, so how could she just up and leave her without any remorse. So Ruth sacrificed her life and left everything she had behind. This Moabite who married a Judahite, was widowed and childless, she abandoned her own family, her country and her faith to settle into another country with her mother-in-law. This was a radical decision for Ruth. Her declaration to Naomi showed true accountability, faithfulness and a firm commitment not only to Naomi, but to God for she said: Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: [17] Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.