CHARACTER
There is nothing in the world great in any way but man, there is nothing truly great in man but is character. Character is the sum total of ones qualities which distinguishes one person from the other? A gentleman’s first characteristic is the fineness of structure in his body, fineness fitted by his nature.”
A person with an unselfish charitable and generous impulse, sociable, loving, kind, of tender heart with thoughts of others will always be universally loved because he is a light bearer, someone with human feelings.
A true man of character, a gentleman is God’s servant, the world’s master. Virtue is his business; study, his recreation; contentment, his rest; and happiness, his reward. God is his father; Jesus Christ, his Savior; the saints, his brethren; and all that are in need of him are his friends. Devotion is his chaplain; chastity, his chamberlain; sobriety, his butler; temperance, his cook; hospitality, his housekeeper; Providence, his steward; charity, his treasurer; piety, his mistress of the house; and discretion, his porter, to let in or out, as most fit. Thus is his whole family made up of virtue, and he is master of the house. He is necessitated to take the world on his way to heaven, and he walks through it as fast as he can, and all his business by the way is to make himself and others happy. Take him in this word—a man and a Christian make character.
Character itself should be to an individual a paramount end, simply because the existence of this ideal nobleness of character, or of a near approach to it, in any abundance, would go further than all other things toward making human life happy, both in the comparatively humble sense of pleasure and freedom from pain, and in the higher meaning of rendering life not what it now is, almost universally puerile and insignificant, but such as every human being with highly developed faculties would desire to have. And this, every man is to work at: Though our character is formed by circumstances, our own desires can do much to shape those circumstances; and what is really inspiriting and encouraging in the doctrine of free will is the conviction that we have real power over the formation of our own character; our will, by influencing some of our circumstances, being able to modify our future habits or capacities of willingness.
Character distinguishes one man from the other, it portrays the style of living one engages in, the kinds of friends one have. It is the sum total of all our living on earth, for he who possess the qualities of a servant his he who can lead. These qualities are not of those who are servants in the real sense of the word but those who understand the traits of leadership – traits that treats others like they would love to be treated in respect and understanding not minding if the person to be respected is a peasant farmer or just an ordinary laborer, one who gives recognition to heavenly humbleness and respect.
Character is a quality that needs to be imbedded in all individually; it is something that we all must know and train ourselves to achieve the height of. No human having met a man of true worth in character ever wishes not to know the personality. And many at times we forget the price of a good character which the art of studying, understanding one’s self, practicing the right traits that can only lead to confidence, as they say “knowledge beget knowledge” and “the pen is mightier than the sword”, but a man of character is first a man of knowledge and wisdom in areas that he has taught himself without the prying eyes of anyone; in isolation.
Basically, failure comes to all through the trainings that they have had while growing; the coxing of adults and parents for the sake of love. Not that they do not want success but the facts still stands that everyone on earth is learning to become and it is not easy for all to understand the way for teaching characteristic traits that will build the child rightly. We are prone to mistakes and shortcoming which sometimes makes us believe that whatever we are learning is not easy to grasp.
Character; how can this leadership trait be developed, how can we find one who is capable of teaching it and showing facts that can help to make it a life in all? We have seen leaders who fail and have always seen those who when we see them we wish they can be our friend or teacher, to help us learn what makes people wants to be like them.
The greatest mishap that can happen to anyone is to have no friend on this earth; the sorrows of no love, the pains of non to comfort one, and the heart ache of not knowing a better way to live to the fullest all the joys that is seen in others face.
Some would do anything to get a single dose of another persons love and laughter, even not minding killing for it. Haven’t you seen or notice that some robbers only steal merely because of someone they love, and there are many who are merely working because they feel that it is the only way to be happy.
Basically, happiness does not come through hard work, luck or any other means but by the practice put in place to become what a person his looking for and in inculcating a gentleman’s trait – Traits of love, kindness, respect, humbleness, generosity, understanding, wisdom and the fear of God.
What would a man not give for character that would lift him up above his fellow man, but everything he has? Everyone wants to be recognized, appreciated, praised, loved, and to have a following by people, but this can only come through a thoroughly learned, applied and built character.
You can find no love in the world until you start showing that you care for someone, nor can you make any friend until you start to be friendly yourself. Every aspect of life is something that must be built and the best way to become whatever in this world is by building that outstanding behavior called “Character”.
BUILDING CHARACTER
Character is build up, by our choices and our refusals? We select from life what we choose. We resemble insects which assume the color of the leaves and plants they feed upon because sooner or later we become like the food of our minds, like the creatures that live in our hearts. Every act of our lives, every word, every association, is written with an iron pen upon the very texture of our inner being.
If youths were to start out in the world with a fixed determination that they will make no statement but the exact truth; that every promise shall be redeemed to the letter; every appointment kept with the strictest faithfulness, and with holy regard for other men’s time; if they should hold their reputation as priceless treasure, feeling that the eyes of the world are upon them, that they must not deviate a hair’s breadth from the truth and right—if they should take such a stand from the beginning—they would come to have the almost unlimited confidence of all mankind.
What we are to be really, we are now potentially. As the future of the tree lies hidden in the seed, so in the present stands our future. Our success will be, can be, but a natural tree, developed from the seed of our own sowing; the fragrance of its blossoms and the richness of its fruitage will depend upon nourishment absorbed from our past and present situations or experiences.
The first requisite of all education and discipline should be MAN-TIMBER. Tough timber must come from well-grown, strong trees. Such wood can be turned into a mast, can be fashioned into a piano, or an exquisite carving. But it must become a timber first.
Time and patience develop the sapling into the tree. So, through discipline, education, experience, the sapling child is developed into hardy mental, moral, physical timber. The only real success worthy of the name is that which comes from a consciousness of growing wider, deeper, higher, in mental and moral power, as the years go on. To feel the faculties expanding and unfolding—this is the only life worth living.
What will our future be but what we make it? Our purpose will give it character. A person’s resolution is his prophecy. There is no bright hope, no great outlook, for the person who is not inspired by a strong purpose, which alone is the true judge of his maturity.
If you infuse into the purpose with which you follow the various employments and professions of life, no matter how humble they may be, the sense of beauty, pleasure, and harmony, you will be transformed at once from an artisan to an artist. Any discontent you feel with the work you are compelled to do come from your doing it in the spirit of toil. Do it in the spirit of a master, with a perception of the beauty which is imbedded in all honest work, and the toiling will disappear in delight. It is the spirit in which we work, not the work itself, which lends dignity to labor – the study of books, of music, or of the fine arts is not essential to a superior character. It rests with the workman whether a rude piece of marble shall be designed into a horse-block or carved into anything desirable. It is yours, if you choose to develop a spiritual form more beautiful than any of these, instinct with immortal life, refulgent with all the glory of character. The power of great thoughts and splendid sentiments to refine the face and manner, to lift man above his surroundings, is marvelous.
These are illustrated in the faces of great scientists, great reformers, and great statesmen.” The body is but a servant of the mind. A well-balanced, cultured, and well-disciplined intellect reacts very powerfully upon the physique, and tends to bring it into harmony with itself. On the other hand, a weak, vacillating, one-sided, unsteady, and ignorant mind will ultimately bring the body into sympathy with it. Every pure and uplifting thought, every noble aspiration for the good and the true, every longing of the heart for a higher and better life, every lofty purpose and unselfish endeavor, reacts upon the body, makes it stronger, more harmonious, and more beautiful.
Building character is an act of discipline, a lesson that must be put in place while growing up, studying and understanding the use of applying learned knowledge to situations. Most times the building of character in itself is a major constrain in that most do not know what they really are looking for in life and he who has no knowledge of his destination in life finds it difficult knowing which road to take, all roads will seem the only possible rout to take there.
In frankness, education is not the ultimate to character building but understanding of what a person really wants to be, or the acts a person would deeply love to have, because in reality character is a behavioral pattern of action becoming a live style chosen by a person to be lived. It behooves a man to cultivate, learn and practice the acts of tenderness, love, devotion to God, understanding human relationship, a giving attitude, curtsy, respect, humbleness, and honesty in all things to be liked by all. Although some would doubt this, but why is it that some people receive more recognition and devotion than others in this world due to just what they do in helping others and showing concern for humanity.
It is a fact that some are not doing anything good in reality to get all the recognitions but have you noticed that they are still beyond our thinking minds, generous in a way that gives them the right to get ahead, even though where there generosity lies is in where they will gain something back; they get at least what they wanted which is important to them.
You can build an enviable character that will lead to a following by people of you, but you must practice and build your habits to it, for habits is the mother of character.
From: Treasured1 Creative Ideas Int. Publishing
By: Salau O John
