Virtues

Virtues are definitely one aspect our lives that have been seriously overlooked as of late. I truly believe we as a society have failed ourselves and our children by forgoing the virtues of our past and replacing them with distraction, selfishness, greed, envy, immorality, etc. . The dictionary defines virtue as:

1.a. Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness.

b. An example or kind of moral excellence: the virtue of patience.

2. Chastity, especially in a woman.

3. A particularly efficacious, good, or beneficial quality; advantage: a plan with the virtue of being practical.

4. Effective force or power: believed in the virtue of prayer.

We have been passed down these virtues that are great and blessed country was built on. Ones such as self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty and faith.

If we do not hold these attributes in high regard, then who will? I found the poem below while reading "The Book of Virtues For Young People" to my boys and it was a slap in the face to me. I, for the most part, do not practice these virtues on a daily basis. If I have not committed to making my life a virtuous one, then how can I teach them to my children? I am making a commitment to practice one virtuous deed every day. My goal is to make them habit so that my daily life reflects these things and in turn be an example to my children. That is MY responsibility.

The Bridge Builder

Will Allen Dromgoole

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?"
The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,

"There followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way."

"This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."