So I have been thinking a lot about what makes a person who they are. Is it the experiences they've had? The lessons they have learned? The decisions they make? How do you really know what is in a persons heart?
As I was thinking about this I remembered a fireside I went to in Connecticut. The speaker, Larry Gelwix, said, "To see the kind of person some one really is watch how they treat people that don't matter to them." You know the grocery store clerk, or your waitress. How do they treat them when they get the order wrong or accidentally spill your water? Its a very interesting theory; one I completely agree with.
Character isn't developed through the difficult trials or temptations of life. Its in those times that character is used. Its developed in those little every day choices of right and wrong. When some ones backpack spills out everywhere did you stoop down to help them? Did you smile and thank the mailman as he handed you your mail? When questioned did you tell the truth?
Character is developed and, hopefully, positively changing through ones life. It takes conscious effort of ones actions and a good hard look in the mirror of who we really are as people. Who do you want to be? Are you that person? I am certainly not who I want to be or who I know I can become. Thankfully that just means I have room to grow. Like President Hinckley said, "Let us all try to stand a little taller, rise a little higher, and be a little better."
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