On Teaching Children to Be Magnanimous

In our homeschool, we have spent much time discussing new words we encounter in books, reviewing science terms, and using vocabulary cartoons.  I encourage my kids to come up with better words than "that thing-y over there" and to name the emotions that they're feeling during some weeping and gnashing of teeth session.  In writing, we grab thesauruses.  In reading, we pull up online dictionaries.  

Every now and then I come upon a word that is so loaded with meaning and import that it becomes a devotional for the day.  Today the word is magnanimous.  We came across it as I read during lunch yesterday from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and I kind of stumbled over the pronunciation and skipped the discussion.  Today I plan to readdress it.  

A magnanimous person is high-minded and big-hearted.  He is chivalrous and generous of spirit.  She has a high moral code and is not easily offended.  Forgiveness comes quickly.  The word encompasses a sense of dignity, a delight in benevolence, a humility in victory, and a refusal to be petty. As I address character flaws in myself and my children, I think the quality of magnanimity is worthy of aspiration.  

And, of course, it is an excellent description of Christ.  

CS Lewis says the chest of a man is the seat of magnanimity.  

Now that just makes me breathe a little deeper and stand a little taller.