7 Days of Virtue; Day 1 – Prudence

Think of virtues like your muscles.  You work you muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed.  Virtue is the same way.  You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.

Day 1 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 1 – PRUDENCE.

Prudence is wisdom for practical everyday life.  This means that you take practical knowledge and right reason and you use them to make decisions throughout your day. 

“Knowing how to do the right thing, at the right time in the right way.” 

Prudence directs all of the other virtues; therefore, we must always have the end in mind so that prudence can guide us to our goal.  There are three sub-virtues to Prudence; 1. Counsel 2. Judgement 3. Decisiveness.  Counsel is gathering information to make a good decision.  (You seek help in making your decisions.)  Judgement is sort of like being a court judge; you gather information using counsel and then you weigh that information.  Decisiveness is the action that you take after counsel and judgement.

Prudence comes down to choices and actions.  Our choices are incredibly important, thus we must know what to do, how to do it and when to do it.  Being prudent means that you react out of knowledge and information, not out of emotion, impulse or passion.  Being prudent means that you have given the choice a good deal of thought.  Being prudent means that you aren’t afraid to commit to a decision.

If you want to grow in the virtue of prudence, practice being prudent. (Practice seeking counsel, making good judgements and being decisive.  You must also pray that God presents you with opportunities to receive grace so that you may become prudent.)

Man up!