THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Are You A Virtuous Person, and How Can You Tell?

Are you a virtuous person, and how can you tell?  And let me say right now, there are no religious connotations attached to this question!

We all know or have heard people say "I'm a good person", "I'm a nice person", "I'm a great guy", "I'm a Christian" ( I assume it implies a good person), etc. You probably say the same thing yourself. 

I have never understood people's need to make such statements.

Words are very powerful things you know and I have always been very conscious of them and how they are used. How can people be unaware of this? 

There is no way I would not make statements like these because while I do not know what people mean when they say them, I know what they imply and no way would I lock myself into such a box. That is an extremely difficult road to hoe!

Words set off a vibration clear across the ether and because of that, the saying "Your word is your bond" is quite accurate.

Do you walk the talk?  Do you walk the talk and are you man enough and woman enough to answer truthfully in your secret heart of hearts?

My concern here is the hypocrisy and judgement which seem to automatically accompany these self-serving statements.

Our problem is that we do not think enough; and when we habitually and unconsciously form opinions (usually negative) about others based on what they say or how they act which is not in conformity with what we are accustomed to, what does that reveal about each and everyone of us; not very much at all.

The so-called truth lies between black and white. This is why nothing is ever what it seems; seeing is not believing as Bill Cosby once said; and truth and facts are definitely not the same. James Allen, whose words inspired this post, in As A Man Thinketh says:

It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one's virtue. But not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities.

And on the way to that supreme perfection, he will have found working in his mind and life, the Great law which is absolutely just, and which cannot give good for evil, evil for good.

Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self. 

Do you believe you are a virtuous person, and why is that? Let me know.