Virtue Development
19-20

For the last five years, I have devoted the month of November to ponderings different virtues that we should personally develop and try to help others develop. It is hard for me to believe that this next virtue is the second to last virtue. The virtues that I had decided to cover these last five years come from Barbara C. Unell and Jerry L. Wyckoff’s book: 20 Teachable Virtues: Practical Ways to Pass on Lessons of Virtue and Character to Your Children. Let us now go to Self-Discipline.

Self-Discipline
Self-discipline n. 1. Self-control. 2. Discipline and training of oneself, usually for improvement.

“But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;” – 1 Timothy 4:7

Cardinal Dolan points out in his book: Called to Be Holy, how Jesus is once again the perfect example of self-discipline.
We are not defined by what we do, how much we earn or produce, or what we achieve, but by who we are, and we are usually closest to God when we are weakest, emptiest, and lowest. To admit that take humility… and can drive a pragmatist nuts.
The Lord and the Church: Take your time! Wait! Prepare! Get ready! Yes, we prefer the microwave—put the food in, push the button; inn a matter of minutes, the meal is ready. The Lord and the Church prefer the crock-pot: let it brew, stew, be seasoned, mellowed, for hours, then have your meal. And the food from the crock-pot beats the stuff from a microwave any day.
Is there a better example than the Master himself? Thirty years of unrecorded preparation for three years of active ministry. No Pragmatist planned that timetable!
Self-discipline is that virtue that combines waiting until one is ready to accomplish a task with the effort to develop the skills necessary to handle the situation appropriately. Too often, people like to rush into a situation or a project only to discover that they lack the appropriate skills or tools to accomplish the task or handle the situation.

Self-discipline can also mean remaining on the right path and not wandering when temptation comes. When Jesus finally begins His public ministry He is tempted by the devil to stray from the Father’s plan. Through self-discipline Jesus rebukes Satan and sticks to the Father’s plan.

10 Steps to Develop Self-Discipline
1. Work on a Jigsaw puzzle
2. Construct a bookcase or other project
3. Follow instructions when putting something together
4. Soothe yourself when things get tough but keep going
5. Give encouragement to others as they struggle
6. Stick to a task like diet and exercise for small amounts of time (a week at a time until it becomes a habit)
7. Talk about appropriate boundaries
8. Talk about goals and what one must do to accomplish them
9. Examine a recent failure and why the failure happened. Try to learn from it.
10. Read or pray the Stations of the Cross and see how Jesus possessed the virtue of Self-discipline in order to keep going.

We have now come to our last virtue from Barbara C. Unell and Jerry L. Wyckoff’s book: 20 Teachable Virtues: Practical Ways to Pass on Lessons of Virtue and Character to Your Children. This virtue is Cooperation.

Cooperation
Cooperate: 1.to act or work with another or others; act together 2. To associate with another or others for mutual benefit.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” - Philippians 2:1-30

There is a story about a little boy who was playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock and managed to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was rather large.) When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.

Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved-but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his little fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded.

At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father.

Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.”

With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

As I think about cooperation, I cannot help but wonder if this might be the most important virtue in the sense that we must learn to cooperate with the divine grace God gives us in order to grow in our faith life. It is a matter of knowing that alone we can do nothing but with God we can do everything.

10 Steps to Develop Cooperation
1. Demonstrate cooperation by working with someone
2. Demonstrate cooperation by showing gratitude
3. Demonstrate cooperation by asking for help
4. Demonstrate cooperation by praying to God
5. encourage sharing
6. Set Family Goals
7. Encourage healthy competition
8. Create a sense of collaboration
9. Praise cooperation in others
10. Point out how Jesus chose to work with human beings in order to spread his Gospel.