This workshop looks at the very controversial concepts presented by Sigmund Freud and other psychoanalytic theorists.  However some of the Freudian concepts do have validity today, including what he called “defense mechanisms.”  We will be studying these later in this workshop, but for our devotional we will look at one that has its beginnings immediately after the fall of man, recorded in Genesis 3.  Freud calls this “rationalization.”  Listen to how it plays out in the Scripture:
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.  And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  The man said, “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”  Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The concept of rationalization basically says, “It is not my fault.”  A student might blame the teacher for failing a test because the teacher is “too hard.”  Or a child might blame a sibling or classmate for misbehavior because “they dared me to do it.”  We use rationalization in the same way that Adam and Eve used it – to avoid taking responsibility for things we have done. As you prepare to engage with your peers for this devotional, consider another biblical example of the use of rationalization and the consequences of doing so. Also, consider an example of a time when you or another used rationalization to avoid taking responsibility for a behavior. 
What were the consequences for you or the other person?