I was reading the story of Balaam this morning, and on the "life lesson" section all of those listed above were discussed. I thought it is so true that actions don't always represent one's motive, and motive does not always present well with one's action. It is indeed very hard to tell what is the motive behind one's actions at times....but God knows.
Lewis Smedes says character is what we truly are, compared to what we seem to be. I guess we can "seem to be" many things and yet all of those are pretended. Piety is our relationship with God where as character is the quality of each person. I guess everything is all inter-related. Relationship with anyone can always be pretended but then character really shows if one observes long enough.
"Virtue" means "excellence" in ancient Greek. It is interesting to learn the ancient Greeks had four cardinal virtues--discernment, courage, temperance, and justice. Those virtues can also help defining one's character.
"Discernment" is imp cuz unless you can tell what is going on around you with situations, you will always make wrong decisions. Courage is the power to do well under tough conditions. "It is having the character to do well when things are tempting" says Smedes. "Temperance" means being in charge of one's own life. "To manage, to control, to be able to orchestrate all the stuff that is going on inside" is basically what temperance lets one do. "Justice" is one's determination to be fair always, not depending who you are dealing with.
It's obvious finding someone with noble characters is very difficult if you really think about what the virtues are. I guess the ancient Greeks were quite wise, yeah?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment