{"id":4661,"date":"2021-03-23T07:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T13:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2021-03-23T07:51:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T13:51:00","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=4661","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from The Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Characteristics <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>of character<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>by Terry Broome<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Andrew Card, former chief of staff to Pres. George W. Bush was interviewed on Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s show on 7-12-08 at the time of the death of former Press Secretary, Tony Snow. Mr. Card gave a most fitting description of the life of Tony Snow, and in doing so he used words that are most descriptive of characteristics of people with \u201cCharacter.\u201d Speaking of Snow, he said \u201c&#8230;he was nice when he didn\u2019t have to be\u2026 He did good when no one was looking.\u201d<!--more--><br \/>\nI\u2019ve often stated that \u201ccharacter\u201d is what you are when you\u2019re alone and no one is looking. It\u2019s what\u2019s on the inside that consistently controls our choices even when there\u2019s no one who knows if we fail to make the choice in a moral and ethical way or not. The word is dokime, and is defined as \u201cproof by testing.\u201d It speaks in the Greek of the process of proving, or the result of being tested. It is \u201cTried integrity.\u201d People of \u201ccharacter\u201d are people who, under the temptation to behave otherwise, are simply unable to defy their inner nature \u2013 thus they have character, integrity. There are several references in the New Testament that show us this English rendering of dokime. See: 2 Cor. 2:9; 8:2; 9:13; 13:3; Phil. 2:22 \u2013 all rendered the word as \u201cthe proof.\u201d Other synonyms for \u201ccharacter\u201d help us understand it\u2019s meaning: Honesty; Honor; Integrity; Decency; Principle; Moral Excellence.<\/p>\n<p>Our nation has experienced a major shift in \u201cworld view\u201d that has affected every aspect of our lives. Tragically, the old days of \u201cA man\u2019s word was his bond,\u201d and \u201cA handshake seals the deal\u201d are gone. Along about the time I started preaching in the late 1960\u2019s many movements came out of the closet. Among them were: Situation Ethics, Moral Relativism, and Values Clarification and Redefining in the schools. Formerly held values of life were thrown out and students were taught to \u201cthink for themselves.\u201d Unfortunately, this ushered in an era where things once sacred were now targeted as the enemy. A concerted effort by Humanist advocates and many others have weakened the foundation of America\u2019s value system. Unfortunately, the public school systems in more liberal parts of these United States have been a targeted avenue for the advancement of all these new \u201cworld views.\u201d We\u2019ve been fortunate in the \u201cBible Belt\u201d where God is still believed in. Many of our teachers have not bowed the knee to liberalism.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere along the way, the home structure weakened. Somewhere along the way people began making jokes about \u201cOzzie and Harriett\u201d \u201cLeave It To Beaver\u201d \u201cAndy Griffin Show\u201d \u201cDonna Reed Show\u201d and many other TV week night shows where family values where extolled and the home was the haven from all that was evil in the world. Instead, Archie Bunker, Maude, Three\u2019s Company, ad infinitum replaced these values-oriented homes with a very liberal agenda.<\/p>\n<p>When this happened the resistance to these outside forces went with it. We\u2019re left with a broken political structure, a liberal judicial system, a weakened concept of \u201chome, and family,\u201d and \u201csocial gospel\u201d churches. Advocates of inclusiveness and political correctness all wreak of the conviction that there are no absolute standards. Along with all this, \u201ccharacter\u201d became less the \u201crule of thumb\u201d and more an \u201caccidental meeting once in a while.\u201d Store owners are in absolute shock with a customer who mistakenly gets out the door with a product they didn\u2019t pay for but comes back inside to pay. Jaws drop when someone comes back inside the store to return excess money given to the shopper while merchants were making change. Character has become the exception and not the rule.<\/p>\n<p>Character is something we must cultivate. Our responses and our choices must be so second nature that people will already know what we will do, just based on our character. I leave you with this challenge: Watch your thoughts&#8230;they become your words; Watch your words&#8230;they become your actions; Watch your actions&#8230;they become your habits; Watch your habits&#8230;they become your character; Watch your character&#8230;It becomes your destiny.<br \/>\nThe author can be reached for comments at 256-574-2489.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Characteristics of character by Terry Broome Andrew Card, former chief of staff to Pres. George W. Bush was interviewed on Bill O\u2019Reilly\u2019s show on 7-12-08 at the time of the death of former Press Secretary, Tony Snow. Mr. Card gave a most fitting description of the life of Tony Snow, and in doing so he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4662,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}