Last night, my men’s group began to study ways we can live virtuously. As a society, we don’t talk much about the virtues, which are basically the skills needed to live a moral life.
In our culture today, we do a lot more talking about values than we do virtues. Although values can be a good thing, they are subjective and don’t necessarily help us over the long haul. Our understanding of virtue goes all the way back to Plato and Aristotle, with further development in the New Testament.
Just what is a Virtue? A good definition is: an habitual and firm disposition to do the good, which allows a person not only to do good acts, but to give the best of him/herself. Being virtuous means that you should do good with ease, promptly, consistently and with joy. Sounds like a tall order…