SMILE – JOYFULNESS – KINDNESS – SINCERITY – EMPATHY – TOLERANCE – are all ACTIONS that uplift others and put power into our words and thoughts
Our words and our thoughts are of little worth unless we follow up with the ACTIONS that demonstrate what we say or think.
It is how we act and speak and treat others in all situations that others learn to improve themselves and remember us by.
They say ‘talk is cheap’ and it is so very easy to do and can easily lead to judgement, criticism and distrust of others. We are programmed, as humans, to fall easily into this state.
However, it is our desire to become better of Character and Virtue that lifts us up to sharing ideas, solving problems and making others and ourselves feel better.
Our decision to smile at everyone, to be kind, to be generous, to actually help some one with what earthly needs they may require, to do a favour for someone, to pay something forward, to be joyful in our actions – all stem from the spiritual values of Character and virtue.
Character, love and virtue are DECISIONS with make to prompt us to ACTION. People are always watching and they are watching how we ACT, SPEAK and RELATE to them and others.
Especially if you are a LEADER. You are being watched all the time.
“Many people seem to worry themselves a great deal more over the things they cannot help than over the things that they can. … This want of proportion is doubtless observable in myself. Do I think more of the accidents of birth, fortune, and personal appearance than of the self that I have created? For I myself am responsible for myself. ‘To be born a gentleman is an accident; to die one is an achievement.’ Other things, then, I may not be able to help; but myself, I can. As I am at this very moment, as my character is—truthful or untruthful, pure or impure, patient or impatient, slow to wrath or quick-tempered, eager, enthusiastic, energetic, or lazy and dull and wasteful of time—I have no one to thank but myself … the fact remains that I myself alone am responsible for my own character; for character is an artificial thing that is not born, but made.”
— Fr. Bede Jarrett
Matthew Kelly believes there are TWO types of people in this world – and he relates it to GENEROSITY in this story:
“There are two types of people in the world, and there are two seas in Palestine.
One is fresh and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks, trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip its healing waters. Along its shores, the children play as children played when he was there. He loved it. He could look across its silver surface when he spoke His parables, and on a rolling plain not far away, he fed 5,000 people. The River Jordan meets the sea with sparkling water from the hills, so it laughs in the sunshine and men build their houses near to it and birds their nests, and every kind of life is happier because it is there.
The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here, there is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children’s laughter. Travelers choose another route unless on urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its waters, and neither man nor beast nor fowl will drink from it.
What makes the mighty difference between these two seas, what makes the mighty difference?
Not the River Jordan. No, the River Jordan empties the same good water into both of them. Not the soil in which they lie and not the country that surrounds them.
The difference is this. The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan, for every drop that flows in, another drop flows out. The giving and the receiving go on in equal measure.
The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets it keeps.
The Sea of Galilee gives and lives, the other sea gives nothing, and it is named the dead Sea”
There are two kinds of people in the world – some are GENEROUS and ACT with CHARACTER and others do not. There are two kinds of people in the world and there are two seas in Palestine”
We all need a little encouragement from time to time. Keep your eye wide open for the people who cross your path who need encouragement.
It could be a SMILE, a THANK YOU, a PAT ON THE BACK, a KIND WORD, a MEAL, a HUG, a LIFT TO AN APPOINTMENT.
Thinking about Character and talking about Character or Love – is not enough.
ACTIONS on these have the real POWER.
This is how we improve our communities. NOT by Legislation. NOT by vitriol. NOT by criticism – but by our decision to ACT with love towards each other.
Great love can change small things into great ones, and it is only love which lends value to our actions.” –St. Faustina Kowalskathis
