Character building

There's an interesting article on the BBC news website at the moment about whether it's possible to build character. You can read it here.

The assumption of the article goes as follows:

'What makes people do the right thing rather than the wrong one? What makes us bad or good? The answer is a mixture of our genes, our parents and our peers - these are the ingredients of our character.'

Hmm... Doesn't that imply that we are not responsible for any flaws we may exhibit? It's not our fault - it's our genes, parents, friends... The Bible says otherwise. My pride, selfishness and laziness all grow from my sinful nature. But wonderfully, God is at work in His people, by His Spirit, to make them more like His Son.

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.' Galatians 5 v 22-23

Now that's what I call character building!