Character: It’s Everything

Is it safe to say, that aside from the obvious “problem with the world” being that so many don’t know Christ, the biggest problem plaguing us, especially among our youth, is a lack of character?

“The stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual’s life which determine his response regardless of circumstances.” (American Dictionary)

I see it everywhere. And what’s worse is that what we SEE is not even a person’s real character; real character can only be truly determined by what a person does when no one else is watching.

I’m going to brag on my brother today…he’ll probably call in a few minutes fussing at me–he had no intentions of my telling this story, but still…

He is a realtor in CO (Pagosa Springs if you need one…thank me later, bro. ;-). Some realtors don’t have great reputations of being honest, in case you didn’t know that. Come to think of it, honest men who do any kind of business are less and less common.

Last week he had a “deal” he badly needed to close…I mean a “honey, pantry’s gettin‘ low” kind of need. He discovered that another realtor had a client wanting the same property. Then he got a phone call–a friend invited him out for coffee…it just so happened that this friend was the closing attorney of the other realtor. (This attorney didn’t know of the irony.) Meaning, my brother could have gone for coffee, and found out the information necessary for bidding over the other realtor. Which, in realty world is not ethical.

My brother, a man of character, told the friend he couldn’t make it. No explanation of why, just that he needed to pass (and if you knew how much he loved coffee, you’d really be amazed!).

That’s the kind of character we need to be instilling into the hearts of our children. The message: God always sees…and that’s all that matters.

More to come…