Character

We're going to talk about character. 

What is it? What makes it up? What's good character? What's bad character? 

When I was growing up, I was a Boy Scout, probably not a very good one, and as a matter of fact, I liked Cub Scouts better. I just thought it was more fun. And Boy Scouts was probably just too challenging for me. We had a camping trip with me and this other kid. It was only the two of us going on this camping trip I had to get a tent from the troop. So I got it from once I got it from the Scoutmaster, who had the tent the last time told me what type of 10 it was I threw it in the car and we all went camping but when we got to the campsite, we realized that the Poles were not the right poles for that tent, right and these were the old bigger canvas tents and I the Scoutmaster then came over and kind of laid into me, particularly because I never checked it, which was a good idea at the time. One of the fathers was on the trip with us. His name was Mr. Weber, Mr. Weber, if you're out there, I don't know if you still are. Mr. Weber came over, saw what was needed. He talked to me and the other scout and we went out in the woods and he went and he found some wood we could not use the poles that we brought for that tent. So he lashed it all together, showed us very calmly, walked us through the process, and then kind of just went and walked away did his thing. 

So I think about that in terms of character. I'm not going to necessarily blame the Scoutmaster because the Scoutmaster was trying to hold things together. But I very clearly remember Mr. Webber, not judging, not causing us problems, but just literally taking care of the problem and showing us how to take care of the problem. And I actually have a number of other stories, specifically around scouts and people of character question is what is character, it's the characteristics that make you up as an individual, some of the moral, and some of the things that you believe and how you act that's character, you doesn't matter your personality, you can be a person of character or person without character. And we see a lot of examples of people that don't have character. I think it's actually as time is going by that it's a little harder and harder to find good examples of people with character. Sometimes we can't define exactly what character is. But we can certainly recognize people that don't have it. 

What makes a good man of character, I think one of the most important things that makes up a man of character is that he's got honesty and integrity, that he's somebody that you can trust. He's got somebody that when he says something, you know, it's true, that he doesn't lie. And I think realizing that it's always better to tell an unpleasant truth than it is to tell a lie. 

Another one that I think goes right along with that, is takes responsibility for their own actions, does not make excuses, does not blame others, but takes responsibility for his own actions, and will tell you why he did a particular thing, both of those things together, honesty and integrity and taking responsibility, it's taken a while for me to kind of realize those are the best courses of action, that people will then start to trust what I say and what I do. 

Another big one that's a part of character is self control, or discipline. But we all know those people that don't have self control, I have my issues, I struggle with food, which you'll hear about at times. But we all know those people that have self control, and have discipline. And we see that in them, whether it's, they get up an exercise, or they go to a difficult job. They deal with difficult people, they're able to really moderate what they eat and drink. Those are people that have self control and discipline. And that, you know, we see that you see that where they're not always such a slave to those passions of those things that they want to do. And they go no, it's better for me to look at the long term than just for this momentary pleasure. 

They show courage, right? And courage does not mean to not be afraid. It means doing the right thing. Even though you are afraid, right. One of my favorite John Wayne quotes is “Courage is being afraid but saddling up anyhow.” That also doesn't mean kind of being that brash, like Oh, I'm courageous and I'm gonna go out there. That's not what that means. Another way you can look at courage as well, is fortitude being able to have that courage but also have some almost like a light heartedness about it and be able to go Yes, I know I'm gonna go ahead here. This might be scary. This might be tough, but I'm moving ahead. And also courage standing up for yourself and standing up for others, right to be courageous, especially those that can't stand up for themselves. 

Here's a word we don't use often, but the word stalwart, it's a unique word, somebody who's kind of unshakeable, right, who you just can always be dependable. , They're always going to be there with ties to honesty and integrity, but they're just, they're one of those people that will stand for what they believe will always be there. You can count on them, right? So again, you could use dependable, but I just like that word stalwart. It's a word that I think it means a little bit more than just dependable.

A man who is confident, but not cocky, confident, because he knows what's coming up that he can handle that he can be a part of he can deal with, he can address, you know, he's got enough confidence in his own skills, but then there's cockiness, right, where it's just this kind of brash, overt kind of, you know, hey, I'm gonna get out there, and I'm going to do all these great things, and I'm going to rule the world and I'm going to take on all these things, I'm going to be the best sales guy. And again, there's confidence in where we need to be confident that we can do those things. But there's a cockiness that comes across. Nobody likes somebody who comes across as cocky. But we all gravitate towards somebody who's confident. 

Another characteristic of a man with character is somebody who's non judgmental. He realizes he's not perfect and realizes other people aren't either accepting people for who they are, doesn't mean there might not need to be correction along the way, or things like that. But there's a difference between correcting actions and being judgmental of somebody about their intentions or what they believe or things like that. 

So here's a word that people don't really like to use, although it was part of a great Tim McGraw song from a number of years ago, is the word humble. People kind of look at humble as a doormat, other people can walk over them, and that they're not going to stand up for themselves. And that's not humble at all. It's finding who you are, and being okay with where you are. And that's the opposite of pride, you know, being humble is putting others ahead of yourself. 

And the last one, just to discuss at this point, is being subject to authority. Right? People might go whoa, really? Yeah. Because we all have people that we answer to. And, you know, we all have earthly people, whether it's bosses, clients, customers, if you're in the military, certainly you've got people that you respond to, and then even more so at least in my opinion, is some kind of a spiritual authority to realize that I'm not in charge of the universe, somebody else is. I believe that somebody else loves me, and wants what's best for me. But we have to be subject to that authority. 

I think in the past, it was easier, I think, to see men of character. I think there were more movies that addressed character. I happen to be a giant fan of the Lone Ranger, which is a little idealistic, I understand. But I love the Lone Ranger I love Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers and all those certainly John Wayne, I'm a big fan of, I think there were more movies and more just heroes out there that showed character, there are some today, there's just less of them, it's harder to find them. You know, you look in the media and you see different people getting away with different things. And possibly part of why we see more of that, then more of people have good character is because people who have good character don't always make headlines, it's more interesting sometimes to see people of not great characters. That's why our villains are so much fun, you know, a villain like Loki is great. At times he shows he has character, but not always. 

There are a number of men in my life that I am very, very grateful for, that influenced me that work with me that talk to me, their friends, their mentors, good peers, just people that I can spend time with. And I'm very, very grateful that I have them in my life. And even though this isn't a particular point, about character, I think there's another thing to just kind of know about heroes is they're very rarely alone. When you look at the heroes that we even see on the big screen today. They very rarely are doing things completely on their own, they always have one or more people with them, to support them in some way. So there's a few things that come from that. One is if these are people of good character, we're going to rub off on each other, to keep trying to make ourselves better, but then it's just the support. Even Captain America can't just do it all on his own. He needs other people around to support them. And when things get tough when things get challenging. Just because you're a man of character doesn't mean everything's perfect by any means.

I think that's important for us to recognize and to be grateful for those men around us that support us and have character. You know, we recognize that we see that we're well aware of those men and we should thank them for the influence that they have on our lives so that we have these examples of good character. 

What I would look at in our own lives is review where we are in our character and see where we can get better in these different areas. I'm going again be honest with ourselves about where we really are our character affects those around us and don't we want to have a great effect on those around us if you can please like and subscribe