Are You Virtuous? Part 1

I'm not sure if virtuous is a word people use anymore, it sort of makes me think of women from Little House on the Prairie (LHP- probably not the acronym but it is now..) in their amazing hand made dresses for some reason. I'm here today to change that stereotype in my mind and apply being a virtuous person to the here and now; how can I be virtuous today? I think I think of LHP because those women were incredibly hard working, they made everyone in their families clothes by hand, they worked ridiculously hard just to make one meal because it was all from scratch. Here I think I work ridiculously hard carrying groceries in the house, what if I had to grow my own grain, and all of my own veggies and butcher my own cow (ok... lets definitely NEVER think of me butchering a cow again).  Side note: in case you didn't know, yes, I am a vegetarian and I have been for 14 years or something ridiculous. Just to answer your question in your head before you ask it, no I am not a hippie or a member of PETA or any other ridiculous liberal agenda pushing program, I just get grossed out from meat and that's it!

 

Anyways... enough about my meat issues... wow that sounds gross... back to virtuous. (I kinda need a reminder every once in awhile before I get off on all sorts of tangents, but hopefully that is what will make my blog exciting!) Virtuous according to dictionary.reference.com is chaste; conforming to moral and ethical principles, morally excellent, upright. Also, in Galatians 5:22-23 are basic Christian characteristics/ virtues/ fruits of the Spirit... "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." Wow, they really don't leave anything out in that list! If you have all of those virtues all of the time, I can just imagine you really wouldn't have anything else to work on... except perhaps coping with your long-suffering once in awhile. The Spirit they are referring to in this case is the Holy Spirit which is part of God, as in God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. They are all the same 'person' but they have different entities if you will and they have somewhat different jobs but they all work perfectly together. Think of it like if I had a banana, and I cut it into 3 pieces, it is all still the same banana, but each piece looks a little different (1 Timothy 2:5, Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14)

It is an analogy used for children but it actually helped me to get a better visual aid of how this could happen. There are also many mysteries such as this that our human minds will never under understand because we are human. God is infinitely greater than we are, and that is why we can't understand His ways according to Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My (God's) ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." This really humbles me whenever I hear this verse because in my own little brain I'm good to go, I know what's going on and I can think things through. Not according to this verse, there are things I don't even know could potentially exist and I will never know while I am on this earth because it is things that are not of this world. It also reminds me of how God knows the whole entire scene of my life second by second and I have no idea what will even happen tomorrow.


As far as a smooth amazing transition into this next paragraph... there probably won't be one, so I hope you're ok with that. It's a tough thing to be virtuous, to be morally excellent, upright, and conform to moral as well as ethical principles on a daily basis (see www.areyouagoodperson.org for a better understanding of God's laws). 


2 Peter 1:3-7 "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory... He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love."

God promises to those who love Him and follow Him, that He has given them enough to stay away from the world's evil desires. Being virtuous is essentially that; not being tangled in lustful sins, sins God despises (which is all sin quite frankly). But, alas, we have to make an effort Peter tells us (he wrote the book of 2 Peter), we have to hold up our end of the plan, to make an effort to add faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love unto ourselves. We have to live, sleep, breathe and be covered with these virtues daily. Wow, I just want to take a minute to soak that in, because that is one heavy call God has laid on His children's hearts. He is also telling us, however, that through His divine power He has given us everything we need for these things to be accomplished in our lives. Again, wow, that just makes me hunger for how much more God has for me that I don't even know exists yet. What other astonishing moments, memories, aspects of my life can He create? I am honestly wow'ed every single day by His grace and mercy and His will for my life and how much more infinitely and how much greater it is above my pitiful will I thought would be amazing for me. I feel heavily convicted right now because I feel I have not been using the gifts and appreciating the promises God gave me the day I became His child, the day I said yes Christ, please me Lord over my life, yes Lord, please forgive my disgusting sins because I fall short of Your amazing glory (Romans 3:23).