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My son got married a few weeks ago in Sweden. It was the best wedding I’ve ever attended. My new daughter-in-law was surrounded by friends and family who obviously love her dearly.(She's extremely lovable.) And they were thrilled with my son, Brent, and took him into their hearts. But while in Sweden I had a horrible time trying to sleep. Laying awake most of every night gave me lots of time to think. One night (actually, around 3 a.m.) I was thinking about my son and feeling really proud of how terrific a person he has become. I began to think about his childhood struggles and realized that all his problems had to do with him learning to love himself. He had a difficult time dealing with dyslexia and had pretty low self-esteem. Over the years he's put a tremendous amount of work into learning to love himself and I am so proud of what a loving man he has become. He has admirable character and he has a heart as big as they get.

As my thoughts wandered down this path, I toyed with the idea that a person’s character has to do with his or her ability to love and be loved. I've written about how a person's ability to love is directly related to his ability to love himself, but I had never equated this to character. A person's character has to do with honesty, integrity, of doing the right thing even when no one is looking. A person with character is someone you can count on. If a person is dishonest, how can he truly love himself? If a person has no heart and is unwilling to help others, to be generous and kind, to assist in time of need, how can he love himself? If a person lies, boasts, or cheats, how can he love himself? A person with character has a kind of quiet pride in himself and it shines through his eyes. It's attractive and makes you feel good when you are in the presence of it. We are drawn to it. continued

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