Character

I heard this definition of character once and loved it.

Character is who you are when nobody is looking/

Teaching character to our kids, however, is not always easy, and it takes hypervigilant effort every moment of every day. On Saturday, Tony had a wrestling meet. He didn’t have a very good day, wrestling kids a lot taller and a lot more in shape than he was. Last year, he won often as he was matched with kids built like he was -- chubby and short. This year, he’s not having as much luck and is getting creamed.

He came in fourth, but the tournament was a little disorganized and they have them standing as if he was first. They also gave him a 3rd place medal.

Now in the scheme of things, and because of the fact that I was ready to go home and tired of being there, I was tempted to just ignore it. But integrity, character, a teaching moment, reared it’s head and I told Tony to go trade it in. “You don’t want a medal that you didn’t earn. Go exchange it for a 4th place medal.” Surprisingly, he understood and did so willingly, which made me feel good about what we had imparted to this point.

Now I’m sure that most people would say this was no big deal. But kids watch me every minute of every day, and my character, whatever that is, shines through everything.

So even though Tony “lost” on Saturday, he won big in the character category.