What excuses and good intentions have in common?

I’ve been told all my life that the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions.  For the first time I’m trying to figure out what it means.  I think it means just desiring to do something good is not the same as doing something good.  Someone rephrased it this way.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions while the road to heaven is paved with good works. 

Now an excuse is like a good intention.  It gives reason for why you never got around to doing the good that you intended to do.  But who says it’s a good excuse?  Only the person using it thinks it is good.  Maybe we should put it another way; I know I should do something that is good but I never did it and here is my reason (excuse) why.  I guess if you are satisfied with your excuse, that’s all that matters.  But what if your excuse doesn’t fly with the one you made the excuse too?

I heard a story a long time ago about a man who was upset because his girlfriend up and married another man.  It seems as though they started dating when they were 18 years old.  He always thought they would get married but by age 26, they were still going together and not yet married.  They talked about it.  They intended too.  But he always came up with excuses why they should postpone it.  So one day another man showed an interest in her, and she accepted, leaving her old boyfriend alone.  He cried to his friends and said over and over again “I aimed to marry her I really did!”  After saying that again and again, one of his buddies said, “Here’s the lesson you’ve learned today.  There is a time for aiming and a time to pull the trigger!”