Character Archives - Spartan Christianity

“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.”
Proverbs 10:9

“Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.”
Proverbs 28:6

“The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.”
Proverbs 11:3

Character is the internal code of an individual. Integrity is sticking to that code of conduct regardless of who is watching. There could be no one watching, but you still practice everything you preach.

You pick up the straw wrapper you dropped.

You take the shopping cart back.

On all your jobs you use your best effort and complete tasks to the best of your ability, even the ones you impose on yourself.

Even the small tasks around your home.

Do you clean the whole kitchen, or just the visible parts of it?

Do you dust around the picture frame or do you pick it up and clean the entire dresser?

Are all of your jobs done right?

These are the basic questions that give you a direct view into who you are as an individual. Are you the kind of person who takes shortcuts to avoid doing that little bit of extra work? Are you the type of person to use the phrase “good enough”? If you are that weak man, then today is the day you begin to cast off that old man of sloth and sluggishness. The Church has enough weak men already, you do not need to add yourself to their numbers.

You are the kind of man who does everything to the best of your ability.

It doesn’t matter who is watching. It does not matter if you have an audience of 50,000 people or if you are completely isolated. Integrity ensures that you are the same man in both situations. Integrity guarantees that you have consistent character over time, that your word has value, that you always follow through and do what you say you will do.

These philosophies are embedded within you. Like anything else, once you begin to apply these actions and disciplines consistently over time, they eventually become habit, and require no more willpower.

You take back that shopping cart without even thinking about it, it’s programmed into your character. Once programmed into character, it is there forever. That is the beauty of discipline and habits. You work hard to build them over long periods of life, then they are fit to stand the test of time for years to come. Don’t be discouraged by how long it takes to build the habit, because eventually you will be profiting from the compound interest of life.

Character takes a shopping cart back to the store. Integrity takes the cart back at night when it’s dark, no one can see you, and you were the only shopper.

Character picks up the trash it drops. Integrity picks up the trash even when no one saw who dropped it in the first place.

Have Character. Get Integrity. Be a Man.

Mantra

Even if no one sees me, I do what is right.

Application

The application is simple. Keep to your character even if you are alone. This is the way of men. There are few principles more foundational for building yourself as a man than these of integrity and character.

Time may take your health, your mind, your sight, your hearing and your wealth, but your character will last forever. Your character will continue to impact other people long after you are dead if you build it correctly. Start building integrity today, reap the benefits tomorrow.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”
1 Samuel 16:7

Character: the internal code of conduct that we stand by. The collection of values, mindsets, and philosophies within the mind of man.

People often talk about “building character”. They usually use the phrase as a way to justify giving you a very undesirable task. Why do they say “building character” instead of “getting character”, or “acquiring some character”? Because the character of the individual is built one decision at a time.

Just like anything else in life, every loser wants instant results, and everyone who succeeds knows that success only comes after a long duration of work.

Character is built by small and repetitive action. And it is only noticed by others after a long period of construction.

An individual’s character is a set of defining traits that distinguish that individual from everyone else. To be set apart from all other men is the result of being different from them in hundreds of small ways; ways that you may think do not even matter.

You drop trash on the ground, so you pick it up and throw it away. Most people just leave it there, after all, someone else is paid to get it for them.

You take your shopping cart all the way to one of the designated areas instead of leaving it in the parking lot. Most people just leave the cart in everyone’s way. After all, there are people who get paid to collect those and return them to the store.

You stay at the job you hate until the hours you agreed to work each day are fulfilled. You could dart out at 4:56 p.m., but you don’t, you have character.

Or maybe you don’t do any of these things. Maybe you allow the small details of life to slide by because they are “unimportant”. Take a good look in the mirror, what you will see is a man who lacks character. It is nothing more than the cumulative result of hundreds of small choices like the ones listed above. They aren’t any big deal, or so you think. But when added together they mean more than when they are examined individually.

Any man who will slack off and make excuses in the little endeavors of character will do so in the great endeavors.

Do you really think you will suddenly “snap out of it” when everything is on the line, or when it actually matters? No, you will fail. Your lack of character will have compounded over those small choices, leaving you as just another loser, like everyone in the world and just like most men in the Church. Don’t be those weak, pusillanimous me, have some character. Be a man. Give the Church a good name.

Mantra

Every small action I take reflects my character.

Application

Start actually taking those small actions. You will never build any character without those small actions that seemingly “don’t matter”. It is really that simple. Not always fun or convenient, but simple.

Then you repeat those small actions every day. Eventually you begin to associate them with your identity as a man of character. If you put two days of action together, it becomes easier to get that third day as well. Now you have momentum on your side. Now you have very little reason to ever be that same person who lacked character ever again.

With the momentum, you add more positive traits, more small actions, new actions that make you better as a man. Add up all these small decisions and you are a man of character.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.