Life with Virtues

Written by Jay Hartwell

Colossians 3:12-14
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Thoughts:
Lately I've been thinking about virtues, specifically as it pertains to raising my children. I've been imagining the different opportunities at the different stages of their lives how I can teach them a virtue that will stick, an intentional virtue training session. It seems that every time I ponder ways in which I can teach my children or others, God turns and asks me a few questions - "how are you doing in this area? Are you prepared to teach this to someone else? Does your life reflect what you are about to teach?" These questions can sometimes be hard, but essential to answer if we want to become effective teachers and leaders.

Prime example: how can I teach my kid patience when I'm yelling at the car, ok at the person, in front of me to hurry up and get out of my way idiot! What will my kid do when he's playing cars with his friends and they're in his way? I just showed him how to be impatient, rude, selfish, bitter and mean. Good start to teaching virtues, right?

Almost everything we do, someone is watching, learning, repeating, growing. We all are leaders. Someone, somewhere is following your lead. If our children and others are watching us and follow us, how much more should we be watching our God and following His example, learning from the perfect most virtuous source we know, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God displays 2 overarching virtues: His holiness (righteousness, justice, goodness) and His love.

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1 Peter 1:15-16
But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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"And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." - an orchestra has many different instruments that all sound slightly and drastically different. Some obvious and bold, some gentle and soft, some high and low. When an instrument is not tuned you can definitely hear it. When someone is off key it's easily noticed. If each instrument in an orchestra played unrehearsed without practice think of how it would sound. Though when an orchestra is completely trained with each instrument playing in tune, in alignment with each other, bond together with the noticeable compassion and love of the conductor, it's majestic!

A few other passages on virtues:

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

1 Thessalonians 1:3
We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:4 - 5
Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints -- the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel.

1 Timothy 6:10 - 12
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Psalm 112
Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Who find great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.

Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor. The wicked man will see and be vexed, he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.