In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb: What It Takes to Truly See

In the upper Midwest, when it is spring and the weather is nice, this is what you talk about. We are all craving the transition from the cold of winter to the hope of spring. I was meeting outside with a student recently, and the idea of March coming “in like a lion and out like a lamb” came up. What starts with up and down temperatures, wind, and storms, turns to the beauty of sunshine, longer days, and the grass greening.

When I hear “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” I visualize it. I picture the lion and the lamb together in a mix of meteorological and biblical metaphors. I picture a tawny, maned lion and a soft, fluffy lamb. On this occasion, the visual imagery raised some new ideas for me. The student I was talking with is blind.

Over the past two years, I have had the joy of working with my friend Nate here on campus. He is always gracious. A hard worker in the classroom and a friendly face around it. He’s open to my curiosity and willing to talk through how we each experience the world in similar ways and at times a bit differently. Perhaps like you, I don’t realize just how much I let my sight dictate my understanding of the world. In attempting to create an accessible educational experience, I have learned to see how often I trust my eyes to tell me all I think I need to know.

I asked Nate what he pictured when I said, “a lion and a lamb.” (And even in this, I stumbled in my words. What does he picture? What does he visualize? What does he think of?) Nate shared that when he thinks of a lion, he thinks of angry, which seems to be a fair description in connection to our weather metaphor. At least in this case, what Nate considers when he thinks of something is not how it looks, but rather its character.

When I think of another person, I usually visualize their face first. How often do I let my sight deceive me about what is most important? Or, how often do I spend more time considering how I appear to others rather than how my treatment of them reflects the character I aspire to?

As I reflect on this, I am challenged to move from considering my own appearance to thinking about how others experience my character. I know this is a foundational Christian truth, but still, it is easy to miss.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”¹

Virtue and Character

Recently, Carlos R. Arias wrote a CSR blog post² about the importance and value of educating not just for content but also for character. I resonate with much of what he said, including his definitional work on virtue and character. Our character can be considered our habits of mind, heart, and body.³ Or put another way, our character involves our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions. Virtues are the positive traits of our character. While I could have good or bad character, I can’t have bad virtues. These are simply considered to be vices.

As I consider what actions, attitudes, or thoughts are virtuous, I appreciate Aristotle’s function argument as a guide.⁴ The virtues of a thing are those traits that most fully help it to fulfill its function. A knife’s virtues are its sharp edge, its sturdy blade, and its balanced handle. Human virtues are, therefore, those things that most fully help me to fulfill my purpose as a human. In the Christian context, they are the character traits that help us to be most fully who God is calling us to be. These are the habits that lead to human flourishing or Aristotle’s eudaimonia, as Arias referenced.

Paul Waddell describes virtues as “the quintessential humanizing qualities; through them, we grow more deeply in our most genuine excellence as individuals and as communities and acquire the skills we need for life.”⁵ However, when we practice vices, “we cultivate not excellence, but mediocrity and moral decline.”⁶

I believe wholeheartedly that the work of the university is to educate the whole person. The role of the university, and particularly the Christian University, ought to be to cultivate human flourishing. If we are teaching students content and sending them out to live lives of mediocrity, we are missing the mark.

While not all students initially see character development as a purpose of higher education, I have found that students love to talk and think about who they are becoming.

Lamb et al.⁷ propose a framework for systematic character and virtue development, offering seven steps towards virtue development in college students.
1. Habituation through practice
2. Reflection on personal experience
3. Engagement with virtuous exemplars
4. Dialogue that increases virtue literacy
5. Awareness of situational variables and biases
6. Moral Reminders
7. Friendships of mutual accountability

Backed by research from education, philosophy, and psychology and rooted in Aristotelian virtue tradition,⁸ these steps offer a road map for character and virtue development across the academy. While the step names are fairly descriptive, for a more in-depth description of these practices, see the Educating Character Initiative website⁹ or see Lamb et al.’s full chapter in Cultivating Virtue in the University.¹⁰
As educators, we can use Lamb et al.’s steps as practical wisdom to work research-based virtue formation practices into our classrooms. We might consider how to embed these steps within a field or curriculum, or we might consider that virtues themselves can be the curriculum.

Embedded within the curriculum, modules focused on character could incorporate a class session or a project that cultivates virtue by assigning students to consider the virtues necessary to flourish as an excellent engineer, an excellent nurse, or an excellent accountant (awareness of situational variables and biases). Students might seek moral exemplars and interview them to better understand how they became the way they are (engagement with virtuous exemplars). Or, they might have a project that encourages them to define and practice virtues that they believe to be important with in-class conversations to reflect on the experience (habituation through practice and friendships of mutual accountability). Creative options abound.

When character becomes the curriculum, we can consider examples like Wake Forest’s interdisciplinary course “Commencing character: How should we live,” which pairs “Aristotle’s ancient ethics with contemporary commencement speeches and integrates pedagogical exercises designed to cultivate virtue. The course culminates with students delivering their own commencement addresses on their vision of a good life.”¹¹ Courses like this could be easy to align with the mission, vision, and values of a faith-based institution and could potentially be implemented as part of core curriculum requirements. 

Character development has long been present but understated in the American educational system. In an AI age, our humanity is something that we should be looking to highlight.¹² A character-forward education could be part of what sets our graduates apart. 

Conclusion

How often do my eyes point me in the wrong direction? 

In Acts 9, we read about Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Before this moment, Saul likely thought his vision was guiding him in the right direction. He thought he was following God by persecuting followers of the way.¹³ It took blindness to be able to truly see. 

Like my students, I like to think about who I am becoming. This is part of the good work of virtue and character development on a college campus. I don’t have to have it all figured out to encourage students towards growth. I can join them on the journey of virtue development. I am working to apply the steps of virtue development in my own life, and this moment of reflection with Nate is part of this journey of growth.

As often happens when I dare to allow it, students teach me. I am hopeful that I will continue to work towards seeing as the Lord does, looking first to the heart.

Editor’s Note: “Post reviewed and edited by Nate Taylor, Taylor University undergraduate student.”

1. 1 Samuel 16:7 ↩︎
2. https://christianscholars.com/the-purpose-of-teaching/ ↩︎
3. Jon C. Dalton, “Helping Students Develop Coherent Values and Ethical Standards” in Good Practice in Student Affairs: Principles to Foster Student Learning, eds G.S. Blimling & E.J. Whitt. (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999). ↩︎
4. Aristotle, W.D. Ross, W. D., and Lesley Brown. The Nicomachean Ethics. (Oxford University Press, 2009).  ↩︎
5. Paul J. Waddell, Happiness and the Christian Moral Life: An Introduction to Christian Ethics (4th ed.). (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024), 105. ↩︎
6. Waddell, Happiness, 107. ↩︎
7. Michael Lamb, Jonathan Brant, and Edward Brooks. “Seven Strategies for Cultivating Virtue,” in Cultivating Virtue in the University, eds. J. Brant, E. Brooks, & M. Lamb (Oxford University Press, 2022). ↩︎
8. Lamb et al., Seven Strategies.  ↩︎
9. https://leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu/vision-2/seven-strategies-for-character-development/ ↩︎
10. Jonathan Brant, Edward Brooks, and Michael Lamb, eds., Cultivating Virtue in the University (Oxford University Press, 2022). ↩︎
11. https://leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu/what-we-do/academic-courses/ ↩︎
12. https://ethics.nd.edu/programs/faith-based-frameworks-for-ai-ethics/delta/ ↩︎
13. Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.” ↩︎