In environmental situations that are detrimental to personal improvement, it resists harmful influences, withstands discomfort and gives itself courageously if it can influence positively to overcome difficulties and to undertake large enterprises.
It is the virtue of the lovers, the convinced, those who for a worthwhile idea are able to carry the greatest risks, of which without being unaware of what their life is worth willingly delivers, if necessary, for the sake of a Higher.
We might think that in modern times there is not much chance to develop this virtue. There is no chance of finding adventure because everything is done, everything is discovered, and everything is organized.
It is not a question of performing superhuman acts: of discovering areas of the Amazon never trod by man; of saving fifty children from a fire. Rather, it is a question of making the little things of each day a sum of efforts and virile acts, which can become something great, a sum of love.
Be extraordinary in the ordinary
Our children need to know that their life serves something; that although they have many miseries and their life seems of little value, each person has a nontransferable mission to glorify God. You can and should love, get out of yourself, serve others, and personally excel in working better
The person who does not want to improve, who is selfish, has no reason to develop strength because he is indifferent to the good.
Strength is the virtue of adolescents because, by nature, they are people of great ideas, who want to change the world.
If young people do not find channels for these concerns, if their parents do not guide them to apply these forces for good, they can destroy them instead of building.
If we teach our children to strive, to dominate but not teach them what is good, they can end up looking for evil with great effectiveness.
Traditionally the virtue of strength has been divided into two parts:
Contrary to what is commonly believed, to resist in more difficult than to undertake, it is more painful and heroic to resist an enemy that by the very fact of attacking is considered stronger and more powerful than us, than to attack an enemy who by what Even if we take the initiative against him, we consider ourselves weaker than ourselves.
In the daily activity, we see that we must resist some discomfort and in doing so, we know clearly that it will result in our own good taking a medicine. And there are other annoyances, that if we do not resist them, they will act detrimentally for a personal improvement. To resist the tiredness and the routine produced by the attendance to the school with fixed schedules.
It takes less effort to resist those discomforts that we know will come to our own good. When the purpose is clear, it is easier to resist discomfort. It is with this kind of resistance that we can begin to educate young children in virtue of strength. Although young children live in the present and it is very likely that a six-year-old child will not accept an injection, he will endure without complaining even though he knows that this will cure a disease.
That is why not only look for the motivation of style cause and effect but also reinforce that motivation with others according to the situation and characteristics of the child. Two children play with something that makes a lot of noise, just when the baby who does not sleep well, has finally slept. His mom says, “Do not play this because you’re going to wake the baby.” In this case, you see that you are asking the children to resist something that can have an unfavorable consequence for others. Another approach would be to specifically suggest another game that the children can perform and explain how the baby can sleep. The first case requires more effort on the part of the children the second less
In the previous case, the children should understand how in an effort they have made in the service of the little brother or the mother is related to know how to resist with love, with the capacity to love.
Often children resist difficulties and temptations by subordination to the rules established by parental authority, but it is necessary that these good habits make sense for the children. When boys give up something attractive for a greater good, and they do it by their own initiative and will, this virtue is on a sure path of development.
More difficult is that our children learn to resist discomfort and difficulties that do not have clear benefits, but the only thing that is obtained as a consequence is to stay in the same situation, not to get worse. Ex: a boy is about to start a fight with another, his inner impulses push him to fight if he resists his momentum and does not fight he will not get any specific good, but if he does not resist and fight it can be extremely harmful.
In the family life, there are possibilities to cultivate this good habit, for example with the preventive requirements. We demand our 5-year-old son not to cross the street just in case he could run over a car. In this same sense, the older children must learn for themselves what can damage them, which will influence detrimentally and, consequently, establish their own rules adapted to their real situation.
Fear of darkness. Children are expected to put something on their side, but according to their possibilities. It is not a question of protecting them from coming into contact with the object of their fear, but of graduating contact, offering the necessary help to overcome difficulties. Avoid extremes such as demanding that you sleep alone in a dark place, send him to fulfill a commission in a lonely and dark place, or allow him to sleep with the light on all night. We must show confidence in him, help him with affection, explain the situation to him and make him work gradually. If you are accustomed to sleep with the light on, turn off the bedroom light and leave the hall light on. Then turn off that light but be in a place where you can hear our voices, etc.
It is possible to educate this virtue a posteriori. After you have experienced a hassle or endured a difficult, help you overcome it.
Complaining and allowing children to complain is creating an environment against the sense of strength. This is a widespread custom in our time. Strength means accepting what happens to us, not passively, with the desire to get something good out of painful situations.
The three voices that oppose strength are fear, daring, and indifference.
They are indifferent people who because they do not recognize their duty to improve or because they do not recognize or want to know about harmful influences, adopt a passive, comfortable or lazy attitude.
There is a tendency in some parents to protect and replace the children in the efforts that they should make so that the children learn only to receive. These parents are raising an indifferent future.
So that the children do not become indifferent in the life, will have to demand them effort from very small; Effort to resist (from the baby who cries on a whim to the teenager who gets grumpy because some friend has made him angry)
It also takes patience that is the virtue that inclines to endure without physical sadness or heart dejection physical and moral sufferings. The contrary voices are impatience and insensitivity.
In the last program we talk about one aspect of strength (resisting) today we will touch on another fundamental aspect.
- To be able to attack or initiate any action that requires a prolonged effort requires physical and moral strength. That is why sports have always been related to the virtue of strength.
- Mastering fatigue and fatigue prepares the person to take actions that directly affect the good of others or in the glorification of God.
- Sport offers very favorable opportunities because there is an immediate motivation (reaching the summit of a mountain, winning the game, finishing the race, improving one’s performance, etc.)
- If a person is not able to overcome himself in physical effort, he can hardly overcome himself in the path of asceticism (on the way to approaching God).
- The relationship between sport and strength is not always direct. You can also resort to actions such as camps; get up on time without hesitation, cold showers, walking to work or school.
- It is advisable to teach the children to endure the inclemencies and appetites without complaining, etc.
- Mothers should take care not to over-shelter children, let them out even if it is cold, teach them how to endure hunger or thirst without complaining, etc.
- In order to achieve a good, it is necessary to have initiative, to decide, and then to carry out the decision, even if it takes a significant effort. 9. To capture the possibilities of a situation requires a certain “sensitivity”, which acts as a spark or detonator of that initiative
