Website owner: James Miller
Good character is mainly a matter of good habits. Whether one
is speaking of honesty, decency, chastity, consideration for
others, unselfishness or whatever, at the bottom it is mostly a
matter of habit. Acquiring good habits, however, requires
self-discipline and motivation. Seriousness about God and
religious things can, for example, supply the motivation and
with sufficient self-discipline one can rout out and banish all
the bad habits and cultivate and nourish all the good habits.
Although character --- good or bad --- is largely a matter of
habit, underneath it all is one's philosophy, one's views on
conduct, life, God, religion, etc.. One must be motivated
toward good habits before one can be motivated to embracing
them. One must be able to see that a particular habit is in
fact a good one and that another is in fact a bad one before he
can be motivated toward the good habits. If one cannot tell
the difference between right and wrong, if he does not have
something inside him that tells him what is right and good he
cannot acquire good habits and good character. This is where
the importance of seriousness about God and religious things
comes in. If one truly becomes serious about God and religious
things the consequence should be that he wishes to turn away
from evil and to pursue virtue and goodness and moral right.
The first commandment, according to the Bible, is to love God.
The real meaning of loving God ought to mean to us loving his
precepts, commandments, and values i.e. loving things like
honesty, goodness, kindness, morality, chastity, etc. (all
those things that he has revealed in his holy word and written
into our conscience). It is in the love and pursuit of
goodness, virtue and right that we find the truest and most
profound meaning of spirituality. It is in them that we find
the greatest wisdom, the greatest happiness, and the greatest
meaning in life. If we turn to God and set our heart on his
ways of Goodness, Virtue and Right our hearts are sensitized
and the ways are shown to us. It is from there that good
habits and good character can take root and grow.
Nov 1984
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