Marriage Proverbs

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Pure Gold:
Encouraging Character Qualities in Marriage

by Susanne M. Alexander
with Craig A. Farnsworth

and
John S. Miller

"Engaging, wise, and chock full of ideas
that can be immediately put into action and make your marriage a pure joy."

~ Paul Coleman, Psy. D., author of "How to Say It for Couples: Communicating with Tenderness, Openness, and Honesty"

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Can We Dance?
Learning The Steps For a Fulfilling Relationship

by Susanne M. Alexander
with John S. Miller

“After reading this book, I have a new-found appreciation for the importance of really exploring myself to know what character qualities I need my mate to possess.”

“I love the combination of information, reflection, and interaction with the arts. This approach is present, reflective and emotionally, spiritually provocative.”

“Can We Dance? helped me to examine my beliefs, clarify my motivations, and analyze every step from friendship to a serious relationship. It is full of great tools that are both fun and immediately useful.”

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Chapter Five
Wet Sand Bricks & Blindfolds


What is character?

Every time we think a thought; every time we speak a word; every time we perform an action; every time we interact with another person, we are forming our own character.

Building our character is like building a home. Every choice that we make determines what kind of brick we are going to use next in the building up of our character. The power of choice is the most powerful thing on all the earth. No force of any kind known to humanity can force people to choose contrary to their own will. As we build our own character, the choices we made in the past begin to influence what we are likely to choose next.

Imagine that you are building a home out of bricks. In addition, each brick that you lay for the foundation of your house represents either a genuine or a counterfeit character trait. You can choose to lay either type of brick that you wish.

Imagine that the genuine character traits where made out of solid granite. Now imagine that the counterfeit traits where made out of wet sand bricks. As you build the foundation of your house, if you use too many of the wet sand bricks and not enough of the granite bricks, your house would be in danger of collapsing. It is just like that with the building of your own character.

We have the choice whether we use genuine character traits or counterfeit character traits. The more genuine character traits that we build our character with, the more solid will be the foundation of our lives, and our relationships.

At times, it almost seems that we are on autopilot, but we are not. However, old habits can be hard to break. If you have been reaching for a cup of coffee every day for the last 30 years, it is a safe bet that tomorrow will be no different. Yet, reaching for that cup of coffee is still a choice. No matter what, you can choose it or not choose it tomorrow morning.

At times, it almost seems that we are like computer robots, but we do not have to be that way. We have a free will. We have the power of choice. A 30-year habit of grabbing for a cup of coffee might seem impossible to change tomorrow. Yet the pattern of our choice can change as easily as we can say the words, "no thank-you!"

Sometimes we play a game with our own self. We get up in the morning, and we pretend that we do not really have any choices to make. We pretend that the entire day is pre-set for us. Then we pretend that we are too weak to do anything about it. We pretend that we cannot change our habits or our routine. We pretend that we cannot change the way that we react when people irritate us or annoy us. We pretend that we cannot be nice in response to rude people. We pretend that we must continue the way that we do, indulging when we choose, abstaining if we like. It seems as though we love to pretend how weak we are. Sometimes we go so far to pretend that we are not pretending. Nevertheless, we are not robots. We can make new choices this time.

On the other hand, when it comes to matters that make us want to rise up and be the boss, we pretend how powerful we are. We pretend that we can do what we want; that we can say what we want; and that we can get away with most anything we want to get away with because we are the boss! Being the boss of any given situation can really test our character. It can truly reveal who we really are and what our traits are.

How we act around other people vs. how we act when no one is looking is a good way to judge our own character. Yet, few of us ever look closely at our own self to determine what our own character traits are. In fact, most people probably could not even tell you what type of character traits they have.

Much less, we tend to have no clue as to what the character traits are of those who are closest to us. A person's character traits will show how they may or may not act in any given situation.