What Is Character?

What words come to mind when you think of someone that has character? There are many different ways to describe someone who has good character and some of the qualifications are integrity, loyalty, and faith. Would you consider yourself a person of good character?

When you think of a person with good character, you might think of someone with integrity. Integrity means that you have a set of certain values that you live by day to day. Also it can mean that when you see something that is wrong, no matter the consequences to yourself, you feel it is your duty to bring it to someone's attention. For example, a student was helping a professor grade some homework and noticed that a couple of students had turned in a few identical assignments. She faced the dilemma of whether to bring it to the professor's attention or not, but didn't want them to find out and brand her a "tattletale" for the rest of her college career. Since she is only a freshman, graduation is still a few years away. Being that she is a person of integrity, she went and told the professor anyway. Afterwards, she felt as if a burden had been taken off of her shoulders and didn't have to worry about the other students finding out because it was anonymous. Having the guts to tell someone when someone has done something wrong, especially a friend, can be a very difficult decision, but a good one.

Another trait of someone with character is faith. Faith is when you believe in someone or something so much that you would put even your life in danger to prove what you believe in. Take the story of David and Goliath for example. David had faith that God would take care of him while he battled Goliath. Without his faith in God David, more than likely, wouldn't have lived through the battle. Another example of faith is a story of one of the victims from the Columbine shooting. A girl, who had a strong faith in Christ, was held at gun point and asked repeatedly to deny Him or be shot. With a gun pointed to her head she still stood by her faith that God would take care of her and believed she would see Him soon. It takes having strong character to be able to put your life on the line like she and David did.