Different Attributes Required to Begin and to Finish©

Occasionally in this blog I have shared ideas and quotations from various sources I encounter on the path of life. Today I have another one. Last night I came across the quotation below. The idea that different character traits are required to finish something than are necessary to begin it seems self-evident. Frankly, though, it had never occurred to me in this way until I read it last night. I consider it a valuable and wise insight; one I wish I would have had much earlier in my life. Thus, I thought it worthwhile sharing.

A good beginning never implies a good ending, for the qualities which enable a man to start well are not the same qualities which enable him to carry on well to the end. A man can start on any enterprise if he is eager, ardent, hopeful, enthusiastic, susceptible to the thrill of new adventure; but, if the enterprise lasts a long time and faces difficulty, as all worth-while enterprises do, he must have other attributes if he is to come to a fine finish–constancy, patience, perseverance, courage, steadfastness. How many good starters there are in comparison with good finishers!

Family life illustrates this truth. What does it take to set the wedding bells ringing and to begin a family? Youth, passion, romance, ardor–any day they will launch a family with flags flying and friends cheering. What does it take to set a family through to a fine end?  Fidelity, constancy, mutual forbearance, love deepening into friendship strong as steel and beautiful as music.(1)

I especially like the example he gives–that it takes different traits to rear a successful family than it does to start one. With a little thought, one could add other traits required to successfully rear a family such as, loyalty, sexual purity, endurance, and dedication, to name four. You surely can add more.  By the way, this is a good start on a fine talk in Church!

And being the bright audience you are, I’m sure you can also see applications of this principle to other endeavors in life, as well as to life itself. In Christianity, the principle is expressed in the famous phrase “endure to the end.” Now in my dotage--my mid 70s--I am much more conscious of the attributes needed to finish the course than I was as a young or even middle-aged man. In fact, that is why I’m sharing this with you now. To have this important idea in your consciousness as early as possible can set you off working on a set of personal character traits to see you through to the end.  The earlier you start, the stronger the foundation you have to see you through some of the surprises, challenges, trials, and problems of advanced age. In this case, to be forewarned is to be better prepared.

Let’s think together again, soon.

Notes:

1.  Harry Emerson Fosdick, What Is Vital Religion: Sermons on Contemporary Christian Problems, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955, 212.