Building Character

Building Character

Character is our internal make-up. As I write this I’m also watching a special on quarterback Tom Brady called The Brady 6. We know Tom to be one of the greatest professional football players ever. How many of us know that he was a high school bench warmer for a team that didn’t win a game? He only began playing when the starting quarterback quit.

The NFL drafting reports said Brady lacked speed, strength, and the ability to avoid a rush. They also said he couldn’t throw a tight spiral Six quarterbacks were drafted ahead of him in 2000, and he was picked 199 overall. Not a very outstanding start. But there was something about him.

One thing that did not show up on the reports was Tom Brady’s heart. The scouts, coaches and team owners simply could not read, or thus comprehend, the drive Brady had to be the best quarterback ever.

Tom’s success as the general on the football field is not the result of native talent or skill. It is the result of internal make-up. Tom has great character in the game of football.

Great talent means he expends whatever time or energy it takes to improve his game. He practices harder than anyone. He treats each practice as an actual game. He puts pressure on himself that no one else does. He feels he has to win his starting spot everyday. So he works to become better, better, and even better.

The character Brady displays in athletics works in any and every field of endeavor. It certainly has application for us spiritually. Peter wrote, “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ... Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” 2 Peter 1:5-10 (ESV)

What Peter is writing about is developing our character. God in his mercy and grace saves us. But we are called upon to grow in the grace we have been given. It is not a matter of earning our salvation. But it is a matter of developing our hearts, minds and bodies to reflect the nature of God’s very being. Peter identifies the nature of this character as faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. These are eight important internal traits of a person seeking to be all that God wants him to be. They are not a matter of skill or talent; they are a matter of applying ourselves diligently to be more Christ-like. These are not matters simply for the specially gifted; they are for all of us.

John Luther wrote, “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece - by thought, choice, courage and determination.” (Story’s for the Family’s Heart, 101). We develop the inner traits of character by how we think, the choices we make, the courage we develop to face and overcome our own weaknesses, and by determination to never give up on God or ourselves.

Every NFL team had numerous opportunities to pick Tom Brady in 2000, but it wasn’t until the 6th round, at draft number 199, that the New England Patriots announced, “We pick Tom Brady.” It would be two years before Tom had the opportunity to prove the true nature of his character to everyone. Today, after numerous NFL records and 3 Super Bowl rings, no one has any doubts.

Several college and NFL personalities were interviewed for the The Brady 6 special, including coaches who passed on picking Brady. One of them, former 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, said about his teams failure to pick Tom, “We didn’t open up his chest and look at his heart.” Funny, because that is just what God does, because he knows that’s where he’ll find our character.

Warren Baldwin

Our Ichthus is Backwards!

and other admissions of a Christian mom!



We had a deep long discussion, the children and I...about the fish. It goes this way...no, wait, it goes that way...no, wait...
When I felt they adequately understood which way the ichthus should go on the rear of our family car, I shooed them to the front yard to have their daddy affix the fish. I didn't give it much thought, until the children were huddled around the back of the car before we left to go to school. The younger one smiled happily at the handiwork of she and her daddy, the elder child, with the slightest hint of attitude breathed heavily with a small stomp of her foot. The problem? The fish.was.on.wrong.

A former version of myself would have immediately gone storming to find my husband, but the "me" that God is working on, is relegating responses like that to my past and seeking to find more Christlike approaches to all things. I left the fish, as is, not moving it, because it is a great reminder of when I swim against the current, against a great big God, who seeks only to love me.

That small fish reminds me that in my desire to "change" the way that the fish appears, it is me and not the fish that needs to change! The positioning of our fish reminds me of my lack of perfection and more importantly, God's perfect plan that we would depend more heavily on Him, than on our own thoughts and abilities. That little fish is an outward reminder of an inward struggle, a visible bookmark that even with the best intentions, sometimes it doesn't turn out the way we envision. And so, our grace is necessary.

Just as HIS grace is necessary. How often do we require His grace?

"All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:15-18

What is the Lord using in your life to change your heart? How can we be less concerned with outward appearances and more concerned with inward growth? Praying that you and I are able to find those unseen eternal events that radically change our reactions and our story.

Spiritually Homeschooling Our Children

What does the statement:

"Home school your children, spiritually." ... say to you?

Beth Moore is the author of that statement from her Believing God Bible Study video session. I remember hearing her talk about it the first time I did Believing God. Now, after 4 years of teaching that Bible study over and over again - this statement never gets old.

She reminds us that we have to be very careful not to allow others
to raise our children for us. While it is good to take our children to
church, SS or send them to Christian Schools [as I did mine] whether
lower level or even Christian colleges, homeschooling them
spiritually is a parent's job [and often a grandparent's as well].

• Beth makes a statement in that series that I believe is worth repeating
  here:
  
  "Be care that you don't send your children to Christian school in hopes that they will learn a 'little something' about God... or they may just learn that God is a 'little something'."
  
  [read THAT one more time]
  
  2 Timothy 1:5
  I have been reminded of your sincere faith,
  which first lived in your grandmother Lois
  and in your mother Eunice and,
  I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
  
  Deuteronomy 6 [selected]
  Love the LORD Your God
  1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
  6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. [emphasis added]
  
  In our present culture with all the pressures that our children face in a fallen world, what are some of the ways you 'home school them spiritually'?
  

In Prayer? In Bible Study and Memory [not just reading]? In Music? In Worship? In Service? In Giving? In Awe and Wonder?

If we do not selectively and intentionally TEACH these things to our children and grandchildren, spiritually, they will learn from the world instead. The 'world' is always teaching them 'something'. It is our job to teach them and show them that GOD IS REALLY SOMETHING and SOMEONE to KNOW and LOVE!

I leave you with some intentional questions in this post in hopes that you might implement something here to enhance or 'step up' your level of homeschooling your kids spiritually.

• Do you teach them to PRAY? [by allowing them to hear your sincere adult prayers]?


• Do you get them excited in studying GOD'S WORD together, encouraging them to memorize Scripture as a tool and weapon of spiritual warfare?


• Do you keep their ears filled with Christian MUSIC [old hymns or current praise songs] from time they are small?


• Do you lead them into a place of WORSHIP - giving them a prayer closet before the Lord or some other Sacred Space to be alone with Him?


• Do you take them to SERVE an elderly neighbor and let them rake leaves or bake cookies or take a meal to someone who is sick - sharing in those tasks with you?


• Do you teach them about God's command to TITHE what they earn - from the time they receive an allowance - getting them excited about GIVING to God?


• Do you walk along the way - in the park - noting and sharing in all the WONDER of God's creation - teaching them to give Him thanks and praise for all He has made - like the stars, the sunsets, the moon at night?

Whatever you ARE NOT doing - begin something TODAY.
Whatever you ARE DOING - do MORE!
Give them the GIFT of LIFE in Christ Jesus -
TEACH them SPIRITUALLY at home!

Choosing JOY,