Our Character

Ready:

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” -- Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Set:

Have you learned anything about yourself during the last week? It is important to analyze your past events and experiences, to be more prepared for today!

We as coaches and athletes, we like to review all our trophies and medals and recall our way to successes. We also like to look at the legendary teams we admire and their journeys to the championship titles. Recalling our victories or victories of our favorite teams, we can notice that it is much easier to anyone to reach the goal–a championship. Every time you step onto the field, arena or court as a champion, you face different thoughts and reality. You are already a champion, and everyone expects you to keep winning during this new season as well. 

The thing that everyone notices and feels is that the individual players are in the game but the whole team are winners! It takes time and resources for the real team to become best. However, each player can work on his or her character to help the team every day. 

Character is a set of relatively stable individually unique personal traits, that are evident in one’s behavior, functioning, and attitude to other people, society, to yourself, to objects, to work, and so on. Character defines the attitude to yourself and to other people and is entrusted in your activities. Character shows the way we maintain a sustained direction. We need to have a goal to move forward. When we take our eyes off the goal, we get off the track.

Character is like a tree, and credibility is like a shadow of that tree. Credibility is an image built around the real you. But your credibility is not the real you because it is your character that tells everybody who you really are!

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The shadow is what we think it is, the tree is the real thing.” When you think about your character today, do you feel like it’s a credible source of a Christ-follower? 

Go:

1. What have you learned about yourself during the last week?
2. What is your attitude to yourself, to other people, or to the work entrusted to you? 
3. Do you always see the goal in front of you and go toward it? What happens if you stop seeing the goal? 

Workout:

Matthew 14:22-33; Philippians 2:3-4

Overtime:

"Dear Lord, help me today to show the real character and be just like You as much as it is possible. Please don’t let the wrong attitude to myself, to people around me, and to work entrusted to me, ruin my life. Lord, give me strength and help me trust You with all my heart. Amen. "

Andrew Chernenkov