Diligence is defined as “focusing my effort on the work at hand”. A young high school student, just trying to find his place in life, had aspirations to play sports. Although he was relatively short and very skinny, he tried out for his High School’s varsity team. After the try-out, he learned he...
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to participate in a trip with my church. The purpose of the trip was to hold a ladies Bible conference at two different Navajo/Apache reservation churches in Arizona. With eight people traveling together, cooperation was essential. We flew out on a...
The character trait for this month is Decisiveness. The irony is that as I was studying the topic of decision-making and preparing these remarks I certainly felt indecisive as I tried to determine what to include or exclude. Decisiveness is defined by the Cambridge and Oxford Dictionaries as the...
In January when I volunteered to write the blog for FLEXIBILITY, little did I know it would be one of the hottest topics of conversation beginning in March with the COVID-19 pandemic. Flexibility is a character trait that describes the extent to which a person can cope with changes in...
When I was asked to write an article on humility, my first thought was, “They absolutely chose the right person to write this article.” Obviously, I’m joking. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with my mother years ago when I was just entering my teenage years. Our family was heavily involved...
This month’s character trait is ENTHUSIASM. As part of ongoing discussions of character, the department directors are asked to volunteer to present the traits for discussion in our weekly meetings. It may come as a surprise that I volunteered to present enthusiasm. I chose to present this...
Enthusiasm is defined as expressing joy in each task as we give it our best effort. Finding joy in what we do and giving our best efforts are intertwined, and both are intensely personal journeys. The fruits of enthusiasm may or may not always be seen by others. Many people in history have...
As I was listening to an instructor in a common area of our school this week, I saw a student that I have been trying to catch for days. I stopped listening to the instructor, turned toward the student, had a brief conversation about scheduling a time to meet, then turned back to the instructor to...
When our son, Kyle, returned from his first deployment to Iraq I overheard a conversation with his dad. Kyle shared that it was interesting watching the soldiers take care of – or not take care of – their weapons in a combat zone. He explained that each soldier had been properly...
If intelligence is the ability to know things, wisdom knows what to do with what you know. For example… Intelligent people know the rules of poker. Wise people, “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” Intelligent people know that OSU plays...
