Grace, Continued

I posted on the subject of grace a couple of months ago, I believe...but grace (doing the right thing) is not enough. Courage is also necessary. Courage involves doing the right thing when it's very difficult. For instance, being pleasant and helpful to someone you find irritating, when it's the right thing to do.

All of this is perfectly obvious. But it's hard to put into practice. And how do we teach these qualities to our children? All this focus on material objects, obtaining things, becoming skilled at various mental and physical pursuits, being a top student, and so forth...aren't we missing the boat a little bit, by not showing them how to become decent, graceful, courageous human beings, before we teach them anything else?

For instance. Today my babysitter watched as I put away a can of sugar-free soda in the refrigerator--it contains Splenda, not the more dangerous Aspartame. She commented in passing that it was one of her favorite sodas. I stupidly continued with what I was talking about without offering her a can. Later today I thought about that. It's true that we were talking about various things at the time, and I was distracted. But what is the point of life if I can't slow down enough to offer a damn can of soda to someone who is obviously interested in it? In that instance, I wasn't showing even the minimal amount of grace required for the situation.

So. How do I teach these life-skills to myself? Starting with grace, and working my way up to courage? How do I learn them so that they become second nature? Perhaps those are the more pertinent questions.