I saw a sign today that said, “Don’t judge a book by its movie.”  I was immediately struck because it reminded me of something I often think about.

In conversations, I often hear people say, “So and so has a strong personality.” What does that really mean? Does it mean “aggressive,” or “gregarious,” or “audacious”? That can’t be it. I know it can’t, because I have known many people, both male and female, who rarely spoke above a whisper and who tended to avoid the spotlight, but whose humility and quietness was NEVER mistaken for weakness. In fact, most times it takes more strength to be quiet and submissive than to be boisterous and combative. (Ask me how I know!) No…personality is neither strong nor weak…it just is what it is. It’s the complex outer wrapping that each of us clothes our “person” in. It’s the thing that we notice first about other “persons.” It’s the thing that makes us like or dislike what we think we know about other “persons” within hours, or even minutes of meeting them. I believe you can describe personality, but, I mean, really how can personality be quantified in degrees of strength? I don’t believe that it can.

Strength of character…now that’s another thing all together! The character of a person is not a function of his personality. How often have we chosen friends and mates based on their personalities, and then questioned our very ability to make intelligent choices when things got thick and we learned the real character of the person? I’ll answer it for you…hundreds of times! The problem is that character is not presented in the things we do, or even in how we do them. Character is present in the why we do the things we do. It has more to do with intention than pretension. In other words, personality is the movie, but character is the book!

Check out an interesting article on this topic and let me hear from you.

Peace!

My son is reading a series of books for which a series of movies has also been made. The deal he and I made months ago was that after he finished a book, then and only then could he watch the movie associated with that book. I told him that reading at least two chapters a day would allow him to finish by the date he wanted to finish. Well today he told me that he only has 10 more chapters to read and that the book is so good that he wishes he could read more than 2 chapters a day so he could watch the movie sooner. I realized that he had been reading “at most” two chapters, when I’d told him to read “at least” two chapters. I was reminded that many times we do as little as we can and then get frustrated when situations in our lives don’t change as quickly as we’d like. In this case, my son really thought I was enforcing a limit on him that I had never intended! Needless to say, he read five more chapters before he went to bed! I’m sure he will be watching the movie tomorrow! He learned that going above and beyond that which is expected is the way to achieve dreams and desires. I learned that instructions and expectations must be clearly stated and understood, no matter how small the task.