Cash or Character?
Getting Our Priorities Straight
Building Character
A few weeks ago, I was browsing the archives of Our Daily Bread, and I happened to run across the following under the tag humility:
“If you’d rather have cash than character, if your credit cards are maximized and your righteousness is minimized, if you’ve become smart but aren’t wise, then you’ve been shopping in all the wrong places” by Joe Stowell for Our Daily Bread date November 16, 2009.
I read it several times and I kept thinking how I want my life to be reflective of good character, righteousness and wisdom. I pondered whether I could earnestly claim that I have all three of these traits.
Character Under Construction
Let’s examine Stowell’s first part of this statement: “if you’d rather have cash than character.” It may not be something that we think about often until we take stock of our lives. Cash or character is a prompt to catapult us into a state of re-evaluating the many facets of our lives and aligning them accordingly. At each turning point, we have to consider how our weaknesses and our strengths contribute to who we are. Sometimes it is necessary to focus on transitioning from shining a spotlight on our strengths and instead, re-adjust the lighting so that we can transform our weaknesses into strengths.
Although not an entirely new revelation, it’s rather perfectly timed. This passage serves as a reminder that nothing we do in life will be sustaining if we approach it without our character being intact. I had to ask myself if I’ve done enough to build character as opposed to character taking shape on its own (whether of the good variety or the bad).
If I’m honest, I will have to say no. Make no mistake, I’m not a bad person and by my declaration, I have never been a “bad” person. However, whether of good character or otherwise, the building of one’s character is an ongoing process and so the construction continues.
photo credit: symphony of love via photopin cc
“Every day presents another opportunity to hit the reset button on your life.” Charita Cadenhead, Certified Life Coach and Introvert Advocate