Robert Fulghum wrote in the Kansas City Times, “Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. “Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

“These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. . . . When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.” This writer has captured part of what Jesus meant when He said, “Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

“God desires that the humble, meek, and lowly spirit of the Master, who is the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, shall ever be revealed in our institutions. Christ’s first advent is not studied as it should be. He came to be our example in all things. His life was one of strict self-denial. If we follow His example, we shall never expend means unnecessarily. Never are we to seek for outward show. Let our showing be such that the light of truth can shine through our good works, so that God will be glorified by the use of the very best methods to restore the sick and to relieve the suffering. Character is given to the work, not by investing means in large buildings, but by maintaining the true standard of religious principles, with noble Christlikeness of character.”1

“The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. There is opened before us a path of continual advancement. We have an object to reach, a standard to gain, which includes everything good and pure and noble and elevated. There should be continual striving and constant progress onward and upward toward perfection of character.”2

The supreme test of goodness is not in the greater but in the smaller incidents of our character and practice - it is not what we are when standing in the searchlight of public scrutiny, but when we reach the firelight flicker of our homes. It is not what we are when some clarion call rings through the air, summoning us to fight for life and liberty, but it is our attitude when we are called to sentry duty in the gray morning, when the watch fire is burning low. It is impossible to be our best at the supreme moment if our character is corroded and eaten into by daily inconsistency, unfaithfulness, and besetting sin.

“Much more prayer, much more Christlikeness, much more conformity to God’s will, is to be brought into God’s work. Outward show, an extravagant outlay of means, will not accomplish the work to be done. Many are gasping for a breath of life from heaven. They will recognize the gospel when it is brought to them in the way that God designs it to be brought.”3

We should remember that fame is a vapor, popularity an accident. Riches take wings. Only one thing endures: Character. The world needs today men and women who cannot be bought or sold; whose word is their bond; who put character above wealth; who possess opinions and a will; who will not lose their individuality in a crowd; who will be as honest in small things as in great things; who will make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who will not say they do it because everybody else does it.

“It is practical Christlikeness alone that can make one a peacemaker in the home, in the church, in the neighborhood, and in the world. Home religion is practical sanctification. . . . The true quality of religion is gauged by the manner in which each member in the family does his duty to his associates.... Learn the precious lesson of being peacemakers in your home life.”4

“Everyone who names the name of Christ is to adorn the doctrine of Christ our Saviour by a well-ordered life and a godly conversation, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. . . . Possessing this, you will have favor both with God and with men.”5 “Shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things” (Titus 2:10).