Exposition
Today, we want to look at how best we can improve upon our character to become the best God wants us to be; when God approves of our moral character, the people around us will also accept our moral ethos.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines character as a person marked by notable or conspicuous traits. It is sometimes important for us as young people to know the opinion people have about us – especially when it is confirmed by two or more people. When the feedback is positive, we still need to improve upon that; on the other hand, if our character and behaviour are unacceptable, then we need to make that effort to work on ourselves until change becomes visible in our lives.

From the scripture, we see Onesimus having a bad character trait. Philemon and Apostle Paul described him as an unprofitable servant; in other words, he was useless (Philemon 11); Onesimus eventually had to flee from Philemon, his master due to his bad character. One unique thing about Onesimus was that he later admitted he had a problem, he worked on himself and also submitted to the counsels of Apostle Paul until he became a better person that Paul could vouch for (Philm 16).

Like Onesimus, we need to work on ourselves and get rid of anger, laziness, childish attitudes, disrespectfulness, disorganized lifestyle, gossip, greed, pride, hostile behaviour, impatience, know-it-all attitude, manipulative attitude, mischievousness, recklessness, rebellion, self- indulgence, selfishness and others and clothe ourselves with the new nature. (Col. 3:8-10)