Message summary: Meaningful godly character development must be focused in the home and church, daily stressing the timeless truths and application of God's Word.  Indeed, "bad company corrupts good character." Is your home a "safe haven" from the evil influences of the world? Are you actively participating in a Bible-believing and Christ-honoring church?

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"Bad company corrupts good character" (1 Corinthians 15:33).

The longer I live and the longer they're gone I realize my parents modeled good character. Mom kept a lot of old stuff, worthless to most people including family members, with some exception. I regret to say that I am one of those family members who never had much interest. But since her promotion to heaven over 11 years ago I have grown more sentimental. My non-caring attitude for how she held onto that which was of no value materially has changed to admiration for how she held onto that which was foundational to her living a life above reproach. She still had recognition notes from her grammar school teachers and, as I perused the material, I observed the unapologetic attempts to instill virtuous character by the public education system.

Among her activities in her 1941 public college yearbook was participation in a campus group that had three main objectives:

Hope Winchoba was an elderly lady in the church we served in Massachusetts. She is now with the Lord but we recall her telling us how her teacher daily read aloud to the students from the Bible in public school. Due to an infamous Supreme Court Decision in 1963 prayer and Bible reading in school began to phase out when we began school although Brooksyne still remembers it in her earliest years. We said "The Lord's Prayer" and then as I recall had a moment of silence. Of course at some time even that was phased out since someone might be offended by it.

Now in most cases even posting the timeless, character building Ten Commandments is considered illegal and deemed unconstitutional! (Have you ever noticed how the word "unconstitutional" is bantered about for about everything these days even though it usually is something not even mentioned in the Constitution and something the Framers could have never imagined?)

Just recently a public school here in Pennsylvania removed a posting of the Ten Commandments that had stood since 1957 due to an ongoing complaint from the godless "Freedom from Religion Foundation".* It seems one atheist student and her Mom were "offended". Consider all the evil and nonsense that takes place in public schools these days that offends me and many others!

All these years later we now see the awful fruits of removing the historic understanding of character education although there is now a renewed emphasis on teaching "character".  But whose character will be taught and what will character traits be based on?  If we understand "character" in both a negative and positive sense as a "way of life" or "moral habits", we see that plenty of character is already being taught.  In far too many cases, the message is loud and clear; reject God and established moral authority and do whatever seems right in your own eyes.

Our daily text states, "Bad company corrupts good character". Romans 12:2 commands us, "Do not be conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."

By keeping evil company, the Corinthian Christians were being conformed to the pattern of this world so they needed to be transformed by the renewing of their mind. Christians, we must read, pray and apply the Word of God to our lives so that it shapes our thinking, not the evil company of this world. (Enduring Word Bible Commentary)

Meaningful godly character development must be focused in the home and church, daily stressing the timeless truths and application of God's Word. Indeed, "bad company corrupts good character." Is your home a "safe haven" from the evil influences of the world? Are you actively participating in a Bible-believing and Christ-honoring church?


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, grant us strength and courage as we face the many decisions to divert from Your plan of truth and righteousness.  May godly character be that by which we are known, for a good name is more desirable than great riches (Proverbs 22:1). May the rewards of our good character lead to blessings for ourselves as well as for our children (Proverbs 20:7). And may our children be known by their actions as well, by whether their conduct is pure and right (Proverbs 20:11).

Help us to make every effort to grow in our character as we add to our faith, goodness, and knowledge, and self-control, and perseverance, and godliness, and brotherly kindness and love. For if we possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-8). Amen.

Prayer abbreviated from My Sunshine Room blog.

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* Western Pa. school agrees to remove Ten Commandments monument which stood since 1957
Note they also had to pay an extortion fee of $164,000 to the evil group who demanded the removal of the Commandments. In fact I often observe a monetary motive to the "I am offended" crowd!

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