Character

I was watching TV last night (okay, flipping channels) and I came across this show called American Inventor. I didn't watch too much of it, but I saw a woman who invented/created a learning product after raising her mildly retarded son (I believe some people prefer mentally challenged, but these were her words so I am using them). In the interview part she said her main concern, while raising her son, was academic achievement since he was mildly retarded. All through his school years she was focused on helping him to achieve academically. Her son graduated high school; and on graduation day he was awarded the Character Award for his senior class. Using all she had learned raising her kids she put together a video (and I believe some other materials) teaching kids the difference between right and wrong. She said that almost all instructional/teaching videos for kids are focused on improving them academically. What she did was create a product that helped teach the foundation of Character. We live in a society where kids (and adults) are taught situational ethics. There are no absolutes in this arena in today's society. This is not a unique phenomenon, nor is it new to the history of the world. This was a pervasive theme in the Roman Empire (there are some scary similarities to the America of today and the Roman Empire shortly before its fall; more on that at a later time). I tend to believe that this temptation to use situational ethics either grows or shrinks considerably depending on the company. We are either encouraged or discouraged to use this approach in all situations in our life. There were many times in my youth that I was certainly encouraged to bend the rules by those who were in my circle of friends. At the time, I don't think any harm was meant by it. We probably just wanted something we shouldn't have or we wanted something without having to work for it (as I am looking over my own writing I see an attempted rationalization of the behavior -look back a couple sentences, I won't delete it). Whether we meant harm or not, harm was done. It established a pattern of behavior for me, when it came to making decisions, that I can still struggle with today. There's a great verse in Corinthians, it's in chapter 15 verse 33, Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." It's much easier to make bad choices when you surround yourself with people who encourage those bad choices. For those people who are just growing up and think that the actions of today have no long term affects, let me assure you that they do. You set up patterns of behavior that will last your whole life.

That brings me to the second group of people. For many years now, I have surrounded myself with people who encourage a more dynamic approach to life. With this group of people, there are absolutes and there are things that are absolutely right and absolutely wrong. These people hold me accountable and I them. I also trust these people intrinsically. Trust is a very rare commodity in today's society. Friendships and relationships are often superficial and held together only as long as is mutually beneficial to the parties involved. At the first sign of adversity all parties bail out. It's difficult to find people who are willing to be honest, straightforward and loyal. But when you do find them, hold on to them. They are a blessing from the Lord. They will stand with you and help make your life a life worth living.

The end is not always more important that the means. Sometimes the journey getting to the end can teach you much more than actually getting to the end. It is this journey that builds character. Character is not developed overnight. Character is developed slowly and, many times, it is developed painfully. We are a "NOW" society. We want character and we want it now; heck we want everything and we want it now. You know, if you throw away right and wrong, you may just rack up a pretty good list of accomplishments and lots of "stuff" that you can show off to others. But while your list may be a mile long, you character will be about an inch deep. Counter to society, I would rather have a list an inch long and character a mile deep. It’s definitely not the easy route and I definitely don’t make all the right choices. But with grace, the Lord’s strength and the support of the people God has placed in my life, I will continue to move forward and dig deep.