Have you thought recently what will finally be said about you after you are gone? I have been thinking of this more and more, until I decided I must be about my Father's business. I must do what counts now and then...

Serve Doing What Counts

Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe. Hyrum W. Smith.

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6b

Have you noticed that much of how we respond to life’s circumstances has to do with character? No wonder, God desires to train (discipline) his children and to build character within us? Disciplining does not always feel good. Ask any professional athlete in his training season. The Apostle Paul encouraged us with, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

I believe the time to cooperate with God to build character is the now—every day. In the every day processes of life we have opportunity to develop character (moral strength). We develop character every time we make a right choice.

Recently, an actor with a career spanning over half a century told of his humble beginnings and one of his character choices that changed his life, forever, "I was newly married and a new father. We were barely making it; living off of me waiting tables and doing a few acting jobs here and there. A call came from a man offering me a lot of money (back then) to play a young rebellious man spewing out obscenities to his father.

After thinking of the kind of man my father was and the disrespect it would bring him, I turned it down. I declared I would only play roles my family could be proud of. Almost, a month later the man called back offering me a respectable role in a movie and a offer to be my agent. He said, 'I couldn’t stop thinking about you. If a man feeding his family off of pennies could turn down a role offering a lot of money there had to be something to him.' He represented me as my agent for thirty years until he died."

That actor was Sidney Poitier who went on to win for his work in the movie Lilies of the Field, 1963 the only Oscar for Best Actor honoring an African American in a forty year span of American history.

Read the Bible book of Hebrews this month and work with God cooperating to build character in your life.

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Earma Brown: author, Bible teacher, helps minister
Designing strong teams for God’s leaders
Bk: In the Spirit of Armorbearing
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