Developing Christian Character:
The Onus on Parents, Pastors, and Teachers.
We were having an inspiring conversation on the topic, “Love and Family” in our small group when my friend, John, interjected, “God is love”. His love is mediated and experienced through the love shown to us by our parents and caregivers right from the cradle. We sense the possibility of God’s love only because we experience human love - most commonly at home, in families.
The family remains the nucleus of all human societies— an institution pioneered and established by the Creator to perpetuate humankind on earth. Jesus introduced God to his disciples and us as his Father and the Father of all believers. So believers in Jesus are members of God’s family.
God created us with love and expects us to love. Jesus commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.” One translation renders it as “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence” (Mattew 22:37). Whereas we naturally love ourselves, loving God and our neighbor as ourselves is not in the character of fallen humans.
For that to happen, families and the church must serve as “Schools of Love” where kindness, compassion, generosity, and gratitude can be learned and internalized. It is a great responsibility that parents should take to heart, and would-be parents be aware of before bringing children into the world. Proverbs 22:6 encourages us to ”Start children off on the way they should go and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (NIV). Amplified Bible breaks it down to “teaching them to seek God’s wisdom and will for his abilities and talents.”
Every child, created in the image of God matters. Human life is priceless, and cannot be reduced to the level of commodities that could be sacrificed on the altar of money and materialism. As rational humans with the potential to choose right from wrong, we would be made to account for our stewardship of the children God has given us.
It is what sets us apart from lower animals.
My generation was more fortunate than the current generation of children. At every point at home and school, we were taught to show respect for our elders and submit to school and civil authorities. Civics and Religious Education were mandatory in schools. They gave us a solid spiritual foundation upon which to build our lives. The goal of the process was character formation.
Matthew 7:17-23, says a good tree produces good fruits. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. It goes further to say that any tree that doesn’t produce good fruit should be cut down.
We are not sinners because we sin, but we commit sins because we are sinners - born sinners. Salvation is found only in Jesus.
But check it out; Civics and Religious Education, the two building blocks of a healthy society, have been guillotined from all strata of our education system. The devil is in the details.
In his book, “The Power of Character in Leadership”, Dr. Myles Munroe, dwells on how values, morals, ethics, and principles affect leadership in our world. In the introduction, he highlights leadership failures in government and politics, business and economics, sports, religion, arts, entertainment, media, and charity/nonprofit. He summarises his submission with a quotation of Bernard Baruch, businessman and advisor to U.S. presidents:
“Whatever failure I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life have been the consequences of action without thought.”
Action Without Thought!
This quotation gives credence to the counsel, “Think Before You Leap.” There’s danger in leaping before considering a policy bound to impact people at individual and national levels. The leaders' impulses are prone to errors with far-reaching consequences for the present and future generations.
Character Formation:
Colossians 3: 16-17, pleads,
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom…And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
A disciple of Jesus learns, day by day, to submit to the Spirit of God allowing Him to control, change, and lead him or her. The goal is to reflect Christ’s likeness on the outside and in his relationships with other humans in his/her spheres of influence. He/She is called to be a Light in his/her world as a worthy ambassador of Christ.
Think about it. Our Churches are no longer preaching and teaching “Sanctification” nor speak against societal ills and malfeasances. It’s all about politics, miracles, success, and prosperity.
Myles Munro describes this type of success as the enemy of potential. He writes, “Satan is afraid of our potential. He knows that God created us to do something great. He will allow us a small success and try to convince us that we have arrived.” “True success”, he argues, “is being right with God and completing his assignment and purpose for our lives.”
You and I cannot succeed without discovering and fulfilling God’s purpose for creating us to be here at this point in eternity. No true believer in Christ should be intimidated by the seeming lack of achievement in the eyes of the world.
The world’s standard is not God’s standard for His people.
