Hi Everyone - been a little while! I've been busy on some projects but really wanted to share this with you. Hope you are encouraged by it.
In Latin, the word for character is the plural word for habit. That is very illuminating. Your character is the sum total of your habits, and your habits are produced by the sum total of your decisions. Every time you make a right decision, you are strengthening a right habit. Every time you strengthen a right habit, you are building a right character. The converse is true that, every time you make a wrong decision, you are building a wrong habit, and out of that wrong habit, you are building a wrong character.
One thing I have observed over time is that acquiring the right character is far more important than achieving success.
Character development primarily requires one thing - Endurance. It isn’t a very popular word but neither is it a word that is well understood. We cannot triumph in the ‘battles’ of this life without it and to this end it has become increasingly important that we understand what it actually means to endure.
During the 16th and 17th centuries many French Protestants were imprisoned for their faith and were tortured never to come out alive. In a prison in Marseilles in the south of France a prisoner had engraved on the stone wall of his cell the single word: resister – the French word for resist.
That was the simple message that one believer left for those who would follow him. Resist. Don’t give in. Hold out. Endure. I believe that we need to learn more than ever how to endure – we need to be people with some backbone. Everything is so easy to get out of these days – marriage, commitments, responsibilities etc. – but those who will make a real impact in their lives and the lives of others are those who know how to endure. And sometimes this can be a full-time job!
But we should take great encouragement in the fact that when we endure we will produce a good character that will serve us for the rest of our lives.
When someone’s character is proven: I know that I can trust them. And in these days in which we live how hard is it to find someone in whom we can trust? Not only that but I want to be someone who is trusted by others and that means developing the right character through endurance.
Remember, patience and endurance are marks of strength; they are not marks of weakness.
We are all going to face times of testing in our lives and we need to learn to endure through them all. So what kind of testing might we face? Well - simply stated, there are two kinds of tests: when it is too hard and when it is too easy – the first is difficulty; the second is riches.
Some people cannot stand the difficult times (trials and tribulations). Some people can make it when they are tested via difficulties, but when they are blessed with riches – they get so wrapped up in materialism that they neglect many of the essentials of life (e.g. family, friends etc.). It’s interesting that the people who struggle every inch of the way to establish themselves are usually the ones you can rely on.
Life is not a sprint; it is a long, deliberate race that requires endurance not speed.
When a marathon runner prepares to run he strips down to the bare essentials. There is no excess weight. We need to remember that there are some things in our lives that represent weights – they may not be wrong in themselves but they can burden you down and hold you back. They exhaust your strength or lure you into spending too much time and attention on them. What do we do with them – we lay them aside; cast them off. One of the major weights we carry is needless worry about finances, health, family etc. We need to have a proper balance.
If you hold out (endure) through these test and trials they will make you a far more complete and well balanced person. These times actually do us good (though it doesn’t always feel like it).
A really important final endurance builder to remember is this: when you fail, don’t give up. Take it from one who has failed many times. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never, never, ever give up!” Hang in there! As one who comes from a mining industry background it is very much like the refining process (gets pretty hot) but the end result is a refined product. The days ahead will test us and they will not be easy but if you learn to endure you will be a person of sound character, who others can trust, and one who will be able to demonstrate true loyalty. Hang in there!
In Latin, the word for character is the plural word for habit. That is very illuminating. Your character is the sum total of your habits, and your habits are produced by the sum total of your decisions. Every time you make a right decision, you are strengthening a right habit. Every time you strengthen a right habit, you are building a right character. The converse is true that, every time you make a wrong decision, you are building a wrong habit, and out of that wrong habit, you are building a wrong character.
One thing I have observed over time is that acquiring the right character is far more important than achieving success.
Character development primarily requires one thing - Endurance. It isn’t a very popular word but neither is it a word that is well understood. We cannot triumph in the ‘battles’ of this life without it and to this end it has become increasingly important that we understand what it actually means to endure.
During the 16th and 17th centuries many French Protestants were imprisoned for their faith and were tortured never to come out alive. In a prison in Marseilles in the south of France a prisoner had engraved on the stone wall of his cell the single word: resister – the French word for resist.
That was the simple message that one believer left for those who would follow him. Resist. Don’t give in. Hold out. Endure. I believe that we need to learn more than ever how to endure – we need to be people with some backbone. Everything is so easy to get out of these days – marriage, commitments, responsibilities etc. – but those who will make a real impact in their lives and the lives of others are those who know how to endure. And sometimes this can be a full-time job!
But we should take great encouragement in the fact that when we endure we will produce a good character that will serve us for the rest of our lives.
When someone’s character is proven: I know that I can trust them. And in these days in which we live how hard is it to find someone in whom we can trust? Not only that but I want to be someone who is trusted by others and that means developing the right character through endurance.
Remember, patience and endurance are marks of strength; they are not marks of weakness.
We are all going to face times of testing in our lives and we need to learn to endure through them all. So what kind of testing might we face? Well - simply stated, there are two kinds of tests: when it is too hard and when it is too easy – the first is difficulty; the second is riches.
Some people cannot stand the difficult times (trials and tribulations). Some people can make it when they are tested via difficulties, but when they are blessed with riches – they get so wrapped up in materialism that they neglect many of the essentials of life (e.g. family, friends etc.). It’s interesting that the people who struggle every inch of the way to establish themselves are usually the ones you can rely on.
Life is not a sprint; it is a long, deliberate race that requires endurance not speed.
When a marathon runner prepares to run he strips down to the bare essentials. There is no excess weight. We need to remember that there are some things in our lives that represent weights – they may not be wrong in themselves but they can burden you down and hold you back. They exhaust your strength or lure you into spending too much time and attention on them. What do we do with them – we lay them aside; cast them off. One of the major weights we carry is needless worry about finances, health, family etc. We need to have a proper balance.
If you hold out (endure) through these test and trials they will make you a far more complete and well balanced person. These times actually do us good (though it doesn’t always feel like it).
A really important final endurance builder to remember is this: when you fail, don’t give up. Take it from one who has failed many times. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never, never, ever give up!” Hang in there! As one who comes from a mining industry background it is very much like the refining process (gets pretty hot) but the end result is a refined product. The days ahead will test us and they will not be easy but if you learn to endure you will be a person of sound character, who others can trust, and one who will be able to demonstrate true loyalty. Hang in there!
