What does the word character mean to you?  Webster’s defines it as the total of things that a person does, feels, and thinks b y which he is judged as being good or bad, strong or weak.  In other words doing what’s right when no one is watching.  It is standing up for right when everyone else is doing wrong.  It is not cheating.  It is being polite by saying thank you and being courteous.  It is an attribute that singles out a person.  In life, it is a person’s disposition, personality, spirit, temperament, and morality; but, in the end it is about their attitude and life perspective.

Living life does not come with a road map; but, learning and living all of the characteristics of character early in your life only makes it that much easier to develop a sense of direction and making good decisions.  Some times life gets in the way of things we feel we must do and things do not go the way we expected.  But just wait and  you will see later, upon reflection, there was a reason for it in the long run.  

Even children make decisions each day when they are playing.  How they treat each other and sharing their toys.  So character is molded very early in life by the parents setting good examples by extending a hand and helping to make things better for others.  These experiences from our childhood build the foundation in which our character forms.  The greatest test of character is our conduct and class when we lose.  All children should learn early on that you won’t always win and is a key point when building constructive character.  Accepting a loss and taking the loss in stride is part of building this character and striving for a new level of excellence and planning for the next event.  It is easy to be a winner; but, much harder to lose because no one wants to lose.  This is when your true character is evident.

People in this century seem to have a hard time trying to connect the dots when it comes to good character.  There are many self-help books that are marketed on character; but, even with all of information and millions of dollars spent telling us how to live our lives to the fullest – people still cannot connect the dots because of the social issues in the last twenty years.  If you Google the word “character” it is mind-boggling the many sites that explains this word.  You have the media at this time who is certainly not in the court of honesty and continues to strive in giving us many negative reports. Then every day, we have people who are supposed to have outstanding character qualities  where children look to them as role models only to be arrested for drugs, battery, stealing, and cheating.  So how can our children learn good character qualities in this type of environment?  As adults, we must do better in setting examples for our young people.

In the end, character training is all about being who you are when no one is watching.  It is taking the right path even when it is not the most popular one.  It is about respecting other people and their views – especially, when they are different from yours.  It is about never losing your dignity, even when the road is bumpy.  

No one promised you a rose garden and no one promised you that it was easy; but, in the end  – you have faith, hope, and love.

In the picture above, you will see  the hummingbirds sharing their feeder with another different bird.  This is what I call character!

kommonsentsjane