Rembrandt, Jacob blessing the children of Joseph, 1656
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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
The above painting is of Jacob blessing Joseph’s children.
Rembrandt became a master of light and detailed painter, exquisite faces by training, practice, and years and years of painting, over and over and over again — practice. And so it is with any craft, skill, degree or accomplishment.
However, it 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.
This comes from an inner grid, the way one learns to see life, expects himself to live. We called this "self-government," when we trained excellence of character into the very fiber of our children's souls.
Holiness is to be set aside for God’s purposes. If our goal is to become like Christ, little by little, every day by seeking to please Him, growing in the direction of righteousness because of obedience, seeking to understand Him, His instruction, His ways.
It has made me realize, again, that I would so love to help encourage, inspire, train women to own their lives by learning how to establish foundations of these important convictions in their lives snd the lives of their own children.
"As a man sows, so shall he reap." (Galatians 6:7)
Excellence and integrity is a personal issue. One can only become this way through a personal commitment, a vision of oneself, and a decision that says,
"Regardless of what is happening around me, I will be the best I can be, work the hardest I am able, pursue the highest standards — especially for my personal life where no one but God sees — because I have been bought with a price and have His Holy Spirit residing within. So my worship of Him requires that I pursue the standard of His Holiness as an affirmation of His reality in my life."
Join me in my new podcast series about Godly character.