Character is returning extra change at the grocery store. Character is keeping appointments and being on time. Character is honoring your commitments and honoring your word. Character is choosing the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Character is setting priorities that honor God and family and country. Character in marriage is working through the tough times rather than throwing in the towel and looking for divorce. Character is being committed to the wellbeing of your family and friends, associates and others, even if it’s personally costly. And character is setting a good example. A married person of character acts married all the time.

A person of character is self-disciplined and self-controlled. Character implies the courage to stand for what is right, if necessary all alone, to oppose what is wrong, and to make the effort to discern the difference. Character is being truthful in all things while being sensitive to the fact that sometimes truth hurts and needs not be spoken. Character is being selfless rather than selfish. Remember, character is the only thing that goes in the casket with you to the hereafter. And believe it or not, it’s the only thing that people will remember about you when you’re gone. And it should be something we desperately want to develop in our lives. Here’s where I’m at, folks. I can tell you we used to talk about this years ago. We used to talk about character. We used to even teach it to our children in school.

Do you remember that? We had courses in character. Not now. We’ve got characters in our school but we don’t have any character in our school. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, does it? Because nobody’s been doing it recently? Would you say that one of the great needs we have in our culture is more people of character? Don’t you want to be a person of character? I know I sure do. I want to learn everything I can about what it means to be a man of God and have character because, whether you like it or not, at some point people whose opinion matters will be paying a lot of attention to you and to me. They’ll be watching what we do and how we react. We might not even know it but they’ll be looking at you for an example because they need an example to follow. They’ll be looking for a leader.