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“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” --Aristotle
As a grandparent, I am committed more than ever to support Sarah and Thomas to the training and inspiration of their young children. Character is the pool from which they will live and make all of their life decisions. Virtue, moral excellence expressed through godly character, takes a lifetime to build, yet is it one of the best gifts we can give or our children. I love to read to them, to inspire the imagination, to awaken wonder in their heart of how they will grow up to be heroes in their own lifetime by working hard, learning to serve, becoming aware of the needs of others. I was recently telling the story of the artist Rembrandt to one of my littles:
Showing my sweet one a beautiful art piece and allowing them to engage in its beauty opened the opportunity to then talk about how Rembrandt became such an expert—by many years of training and practice. Rembrandt became a master of light and a detailed painter, exquisite faces by training, practice, and years and years of painting, over and over and over again--practice. His skill was developed over many years. And so it is with any craft, skill, degree or accomplishment.
Of course, this is also true of character and a Christian testimony--
the character that is habituated to improving, developing integrity by practice, stretching to work hard, to do the best, to exceed expectations comes from daily practice and personal integrity.
Those whose ideals are set high and aim, each day to pursue those ideals will have the opportunity to become excellent in any field.
This comes from an inner grid, the way one learns to see life and expects himself to live. We called this "self-government," when we trained excellence of character into the very fiber of our children's souls.As a grandparent, I am all about words—they guide, inspire, form the very brains and values of us as humans. I want my precious ones to have the same opportunity to have the pathways of their minds filled with the “ways of God.” Children grow up to love what they hear, understand, know and ingest.
It has been many years since we began our parenting journey. Over the years, my belief in the value of training and shaping my children’s character has only grown. So many times, our discussions turn to lessons they learned long ago …
