Mistake vs. Choice

Seems to me that an awful lot of young people today are hiding themselves behind "I just made a mistake, don't you ever make a mistake.  You're not perfect either."  And they are right.  In the middle of the lie is some truth.  Usually those words, or very similar ones, are being uttered when they are excusing choices that they have made rather than regarding a mistake.  It's a blanket to cover all choices made.  Rather than admitting wrongdoing, wrong choices, personal responsibility.  Perhaps they have been driven there by a perfection based world.  But, I don't think so.  I think that it's innate.  A sense of self preservation.  That it takes maturity to grow and learn that being responsible for our choices doesn't make us less worthy of love nor less desirable.  it simply frees us from the lie that we bear no responsibility.  Mistakes are made.  So are choices.  Both can lead the same way.  But when we learn to differentiate, we learn to keep from traveling the same path over and over...by choosing to do wrong and then excusing it.  When we do that, it becomes a vicious cycle.  On the other hand, when wrong choices are dealt with head on, it is healing and paves the way for better choices in the future.  It's hard not to feel guilty or "judgemental" when the young people question our motives, love and own perfection.....but it's wrong to allow the wrong behavior to continue. 
grace to you.