Character on display

“You never display your character more clearly than when you speak about the character of others.” – John C. Maxwell

I conducted my very own social experiment last night. I decided to put our character development at Victory into action with a small activity. In a room full of high school boys, there were some uncomfortable individuals because they had to dig deep and go beyond surface level. This is difficult for the male gender.

The objective was to respond to Maxwell's quote above. Each of them had to speak about the character of everyone else in the room. They were instructed to write down the desirable character traits that each person possessed. It forced them to look at the good things others had to offer and it began to reveal their own character. It was fun. Looking for good things in others created a supremely positive atmosphere and everyone felt good. When we honor others, we feel good about doing it. If we truly value others, we should be constantly honoring them.

They gave me their piece of paper as they left and I'm compiling all of the information about each individual. On Thursday, I will give each of them their own piece of paper with all of the great things others said about them (they don't know this yet). I'm not doing it to build their self-esteem; I dislike self-esteem. It was done so they gain self-respect.

The vision I had for this activity is that these young men would take the character traits others see in them and grow to own and embrace who they are so they can step into the greatness they were created for. Until they know who they are, they won't know what to do...identity before activity.