Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Building character: part 1

"The building of character is a community thing."

That is a quote from a great new book called Deadly Viper - Character Assassins. Anyone can read it, but it is really written for men from a male perspective. Check it out here. One of the authors of that book Jud Wilhite often says, "character is the key to sustained individual significance." I believe both of those statements to be true. I believe the best example of character building being a community thing is the family. As parents, Sherry and I want to do all we can to build the character of Emily and Grace. It wouldn't make a lot of sense for us to leave that up to them. Character building is done in community and the natural community for that to happen in when you are a kid is the family.

What happens when you grow-up, get a job and move out? (I have often been accused of not really growing up) Where do you find a community that helps build your character? Sunday morning worship services are not where this will happen. Those events can't be personal enough for that. If character building is really going to happen in your life, you have to find some guys (if you're a guy) to meet with regularly and work on it. The key is that you are doing it together.

This is my first post that I have included a "part 1" in the title. I guess that means I have to write a "part 2" tomorrow. See you then.

By the way, when I ran the spell-check on this post I found out that I don't know how to spell "believe". That whole "i" before "e" thing has always confused me.

2 comments:

Freedom Fellowship serving in Haiti said...

Cliff-
What did you mean "I believe both of these statements to be true?" I only read 1 statement. Thanks brother.

Cliff Marshall said...

The one at the top of the post about character being done in community, and the one about the importance of character. At least that's what I think I meant...