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Podcast. Today's reading was edited and adapted from The Aim of Life by Philip Stafford Moxham published in 1894. Character is a very different thing from reputation although the two often are used interchangeably. Reputation is what you are thought to be. Character is what you are. The one is opinion, the other is fact. Circumstances and associations, or even artful management, may give you a fictitious reputation for a time, but your character is yourself, and that at your real reputation. You may run away from a bad reputation for that is something outside of yourself.

But you can never run away from a bad character, for that is yourself. Your reputation is like your shadow, which according as the sun is This higher low may be longer or shorter than yourself or may be longer than yourself. Even disappear altogether as when the sun is at its zenith. But your character is like the color of your eyes. Look which way you will. It is the same. Having got a clear idea of what character is, let us think about the ways by which it To be good or evil. The first thing to recognize is that character is formed. It is not inherited. You are born with a nature which has certain susceptibilities and tendencies, but no character. Character is the result of certain forces.

Chief among them which are your own choices and volitions. You did not choose the lot in which you were born that was chosen for you. You did not create your temperament that you inherited from your parents, but what you become Income is mainly the product of your own will. In other words, you make your own character. Wisely has it been ordained that I We shall determine our own destiny. We are masters of our fates. This great and perilous power is the mark of our true dignity as children of God. You have conscience. And will, and the possibility of unlimited mental and moral growth. Your ability to expand upward is infinite.

Your body is only your pedestal and instrument. Though your feet press the earth, your head may touch the stars. Reasoning will give you a strength greater than that of an elephant, a swiftness. Beyond that of the horse and a skill infinitely surpassing that of the beaver while your spiritual nature lifts you above other animal life. A baby seems to have little more than an animal nature but quickly it reveals capacities that Belong only to a spiritual being capable of knowing God and of participating in the divine.

In divine power and wisdom. In a word, we are all capable of moral character, and this character we create by the exercise of our moral powers in the various situations and experiences of our lives. The process of character formation involves the action and interaction of many forces. Totality of life, at any moment, is the product mainly of little things, trifling choices, insignificant exercises of will, unimportant acts often repeated. Things seemingly of minor account. But these are the thousand tiny sculptors that are carving away continuously at the rough block of life, giving it shape and features.

The formation of character is indeed much like the work of an artist in stone. The sculptor takes a rough, unshapen mass of marble, and with strong rapid strokes of the mallet and chisel. Quickly brings in to view the outline of the design, but after the outline appears then come hours, days, perhaps even years of patient minute labor. A novice might see no change in the statue from one day to the other, for although the chisel touches the stone a thousand times, it touches as it is. Slightly as the fall of a raindrop, but each touch leaves a mark. work.

A friend of Michelangelo's called on the great artist while he was finishing a statue. Some days afterward he called again and the sculptor was still at the same task. A friend looking at the statue exclaimed, Have you been idle since I saw you last? By no means, replied Michelangelo, I have retouched the... Part and polished that I have softened this feature and brought out this muscle I have given more expression to this lip and more energy to this limb well well said his friend all these are trifles it may be so replied Michelangelo but recollect that trifles make perfection that perfection is no trifle

It is with the shaping of character. Each day brings us under the play of innumerable little influences. Every one of these influences does its work for good or ill. And all do their work through our consent. By and by the full and final result appears. No character is completed at once. The general outline may be manifest early in life, but through succeeding years, the slow process of filling up... Up that outline goes on until at last the character stands forth in all its developed beauty or hideousness. It is difficult to trace the process in minute detail.

Each day's choices leave their mark on the chooser. Today's needs are tomorrow's habits, and the sum of one's habits is your life. Has its share in determining what we shall be. For speech has a short Recoil on the speaker. A false word is instantly avenged by... Its rebound on character. An obscene jest flings back a stain on the one who utters it. Our deeds have an inescapable reflex influence. What we do helps to make us what we are. All our activities both manifest character and shape character. Deeds are never trivial. You think perhaps that you may do many things now which you will not do by and by. That these will have no permanent influence on you.

Your future condition. This is a dangerous mistake. There is no greater blunder than that of ignoring or despising little things. Great crises of peril, temptation, or sorrow test one's character and show what fiber it has. Every day of the preceding life has been a preparation, good or bad, for the crisis. The person who from their youth has been honest in little affairs will safely bear the shock and strain that come with mature years, while the one who was careless of obligation in small matters Fall in moral ruin when the crucial hour of temptation comes upon them.

Along with our habitual words and deeds, our associations also have a part to play in the formation of character. The companionships we have with our companionship are the most important. You choose, or to which you willingly submit, are putting their mark on you continually. There is a strong contagion in example. It works subtly and surely, like a fine corrosion, etching itself. Into our moral nature before we know it. Deliver me from my friends is often a more pertinent and needful prayer than deliver me from my enemies, because against the latter we are on guard, but to the former all gates are open. Now what can be said about the relation of circumstances to the formation

Of character. There are many people in the world who find much fault with circumstances. They excuse their failures and even vice-versa. By blaming unfortunate or difficult circumstances. I am a victim of circumstances is there confession and plea, but often this confession is insincere and the plea is cowardly. Remember that it is your business to be the victor and not the victim of circumstances as far as your personal character. Is concerned. There are no circumstances in which you cannot be true and honest. If your lot is one of poverty, you can make your poverty a spur to such diligence and thrift.

That it will eventually win the golden key to honest wealth. If you are pressed by adversity, remember that noble character is no hot house flower, which must be sheltered and kept in perpetual warmth, but a hearty plant, which defies the frost and the tempest. Scary storms of adversity will give you a deep rooted strength. Although you may have many trials, you can if you choose, transform these trials into hammers in the forge of life. One that will smite you into finer shape and temper. It is often said of this or that distinguished person, circumstances made them. But believe it not, circumstances make no individual truly great. The clouds in the western sky glow with light.

Rosy and golden hues, but their splendor is derived from the setting sun. Likewise, the... The radiance of a great personality overflows all their surroundings. And gives them a meaning not their own. Indeed, what are often called favorable circumstances are really the most unfavorable to the development of a superior character regardless of any circumstance. A human soul is greater than all its surroundings, and may subject them to its own uses, turning obstacles into allies, and winning from adversity, a stubborn strength that never gets pinned in the wrestle of life. If you are to form such a character, you will never allow yourself to be cowed by circumstances. However... Menacing they may be. You will resist the slightest pressure.

Either of fear or of selfishness. You will remember that no evil can master you to which you do not submit. Your own choice determines your own choice. Not whether you will be tempted or not, but whether or not you will be overcome by temptation. Because the outcome of the struggle turns not upon your individual strength alone, but upon your will, reinforced by divine power. - Something's new Lemonade lineup is here. ♪ Lemonade, lemonade ♪ ♪ The smoothie king way ♪ - A Guava Lemonade SK Refresher. - Yum, yum, gotta get some. - Made with real fruit, real juice, and real energy. - Who's thirsty?