Day 13- Character Changers

An excerpt from "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson goes like this

"To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence"

So there you go, you exist, now what? Well now it's time for you to experience the world. And the world is going to change you and not only your physical body but also your character and it is your character that is important. 

We all experience 'life'. We eat, we sleep, we breathe air, we sense our emotions welling up, we laugh until our laughter bursts into a shower of tears. In life, our experiences mould us, the good and the bad, they help complete us (and yes, everyone goes through tough times). Like a mallet and chisel, life carves us into these unique beings that we are.

From the beginning of your existence to the very end, life will throw you everything you could possibly need to create you into a person that possesses the superior qualities of a perfect human being. ‘What are these qualities?’ You may rightfully ask, well, these qualities can be found in Galatians 5:22-23, they are; love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. These are also known as the fruit of the spirit.

 And like all fruit we must bear it. These qualities are those that a person that walks in the spirit possesses, and they will surely take time and effort to master. But thankfully, we don’t have to work very hard to find experiences that will test our virtues because life is constantly testing us for these qualities and lucky for us, it never runs out of lessons.  

‘How do these lessons come?’ They tend to come in our everyday life, for example;                         

The traffic is there to teach you peace and patience.                                                 

The person begging at the side of the road; they’re there to teach you love and meekness.               

The kind person that holds the door open for you, they’re there to teach you goodness.                 

That problem you think is going to take you to your grave, that’s going to help build your faith. 

Your accomplishments, they’re there to give you joy.  

The thing you’re addicted to, that’s there to teach you self control and how to be gentle with yourself.

There are countless ways life will present these lessons to you and there are just as many ways to react to them but all fall into two main categories; firstly, you can either resist the lesson and end up having to go through it countless times until you learn it or you can learn the lesson and when you have to go through that lesson again you would have mastered it already.

Think of your own character, are there some things you need to change or some tests you haven’t been passing?

It won’t be easy to change and many people only master these in their old age, but nothing worth having is easy to get and God hasn't given up on you, therefore you have the strength, so keep persevering and you will surely receive your just rewards.