songshwa.blogg.se

We cannot waste our youth pursuing things that neuter or subtract from our character.

Character Over TimeĬharacter builds over time. Character is a verb, demonstrated in what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. Scratch – The act of working our way back when we fall down and gaining strength of integrity from what we experience.Ĭharacter is all the good traits we think it is.Scrape – Learning from the challenges that come our way (or those we create) and then proving what we learned by doing much better than before.Engrave – An active art of determining what builds our character – honesty, courage, and the like.The word “character” comes from the Greek kharakter that means “engraved mark.” The character trace goes back to another definition of “to scrape or scratch.” For me, the combination of engrave, scrape, and scratch fit well with what character really means.

The engraving isn’t always planned and clean. Media attention gets attracted to the obvious places too often.īut character is more than visual. Good character is exemplified every day and too often goes unnoticed. The good news is good character knows no boundaries, too. Politicians and business leaders make the front page with many counts of bad character. The headlines feature more than the common criminals. Headlines fill us in with the individuals lacking character. Maybe more importantly, we know it when it is missing. “It” is really just a fill-in-the-blank space to add in:Įach builds character. When we get dumped or ignored by someone we think we love, we hear the whisper of “it builds character.” When we are way behind on writing a term paper or preparing for a test, we hear the chant of “it builds character.” When we have the horrible boss experience again, we cling to the words of “it builds character.” It builds character. Those words of “it builds character” echo through our lives.

No different than you, just different activities at different times. The dirty chores at home on the farm were always “character-building.” My dad always used to say that shoveling out the hog barn “builds character.” What I knew at the time is that the only thing it built was a healthy smell that lingered way too long.