We would like help in better understanding the virtues and how they can help us as guidance to provide reminders and reference points in being desirable standards and goals for our conduct. First of all, what is the divine perspective of virtues, their meaning, intended purpose, and importance to us in our lives?

The virtues are, in essence, aspects of wisdom, and this is the importance of wisdom in separating out what is most important to know and understand deeply, and beyond that to embrace. For if wisdom is not followed, there will be a penalty, there will be a shortfall in some respect. Less will be accomplished. There will be lack or suffering in some sense, compared to what might have happened otherwise if the wisdom were embraced and acted upon. Those things that have value that are seen as wisdom are those things that add to life in a meaningful way, and in most cases, this involves an aspect of love, and so the two go together. Wisdom is about the giving and receiving of love, and love energy, and all of its various expressions. Those expressions can be described and given a label for the various ways in which they come about, as a need or as a blessing in some cases. And so each virtue has a place in looking at the spectrum of energy that can be expressed during the life, with all the choices made and the outcomes that follow, for better or for worse. Those things that take away, represent an absence or diminishment of a virtue in some respect, and in the generic sense, an absence or diminishment of love. They are like many facets on a gem, each refracting a different color that has a particular meaning that can be appreciated through the nature of an exchange of energy that it represents, and often there are feelings with it as well, both in its absence and when it is bestowed in adequate fashion, and will often be seen as an act of loving kindness or respectful attention to duty in some way or other. So the virtues are like attributes of the soul, individual components that are part of the broad positive representing each person and their soul makeup. No two individuals are identical, no two individuals have the inherent desire or need to express the virtues in identical fashion. Some are prone to acting through certain virtues more than others, and this we see as aspects of the personality and the character of the individual. And this is why people can be seen as having strong character or weak, and often the personality type and its description is a shorthand accounting of how the virtues are displayed, or even neglected in some cases, perhaps at the expense of others more prominent in expression, and so they are more on display and seen quite prominently in the behavior and conduct. The purpose of life is variety and expansion of possibilities, and that inherently means that there must be many differences among individual human beings, what they are like and what they do with themselves and their energy. This is why there is no perfect measurement of worth and value, because of these inherent differences. What any individual needs most from another can be highly variable. The infant needs a nurturer who gives love unreservedly, and is soft and gentle and accepting and rushes to comfort them, and see to all their needs without reservation or complaint. The leader of a rescue mission needs stalwart volunteers who have strength and resilience and often much courage. The ability to give of oneself, even in times of danger, requires great strength and resilience and is not a time for the softer feelings and the nurturing side. In fact, in order to put oneself at risk requires shutting down such impulses, because in a very real sense it is a denial of the self at some level to make oneself secondary to the goal or enterprise. So depending on the goal in mind and the situation, in the context of a given moment during the lifetime, people can express many variations in behavior, thought, and feeling, and draw on the virtues in more of a sequential manner, in keeping with the role they may be playing at the time, and this does not reflect the sum total of their being, ever. Humans in the physical are only a semblance of their selves, because the expression must be quite limited due to the restrictions of physical existence. So in a real sense, you are living lives of restriction, of constraint, and limitation, and this will constrain the ability to express and embrace the virtues. The broad goal here is to find ways to expand the possibilities under these difficult circumstances so there can be a wider array of choices that can be embraced and exhibited freely, without risk or harm to others or the self. This requires stable circumstances, freedom of movement and expression, and a certain level of security and safety.