Choosing virtues

Meekness toward our neighbor (3:8)
Travis
Images of chrism, balm, antidote to venom.

Meekness towards ourselves (3:9)
John

How useless it is to get upset over our own brokenness. Anger here opens the way to new anger and worsens our conditions. It is a sign of our own pride, not of our desire to grow in virtue. We cannot judge ourselves rightly when we are acting out of passion. The just judge acts with reason and wisdom, not anger and revenge.
Sometimes we become so focus on what bothers us and we don't recognize how we are falling in other areas. We become oblivious to other things.
Example of a loving father: a father's loving and gentle rebuke goes much further than a father who acts with rage.
Don't stay in the point of rebuke, but bring all back to God.
"It is no wonder that infirmity should be infirm, weakness weak, or misery wretched. Nevertheless, detest with all you rowers the offense God has received from you and with great courage and confidence in his mercy return to the path of virtue you had forsaken.

Patience (3:3)
Steve and Sean

Sometimes it is easy to recognize God's patience for us than God's love for us. This is the key to understanding God's role and ours.

You have a lifetime and a responsibility: everlasting joy will return to you by having brought Jesus into the world. Patience means bringing him to people now and always.

This is a virtue to choose because it is something that we always need. It is a virtue the strengthens faith because if focuses on the love of God. This gives me hope. It allows me to faithfully wait a resolution.

Genuine friendships (3:19)
Peter

Over the years we have many peers and relationships, and when we look at it we realize how much we have to grow. In your teen years, friends mean something different than now as adults.

The friendships that I valued a lot were those that gave me spiritual nourishment. I'm not speaking of affection as much as of nourishment. There was no attraction to that nourishment, but somehow I was able to experience the presence of God concretely, in a human way. Somehow through my encounter with them I was able to experience a profound wisdom in which I recognize God. It might be their compassion, their words, their wisdom, their humility. I am not addicted to the person for affection, but I have feelings of a spiritual connection. We communicate and find that at the core we sense a wonder and awe, a surrender, to something greater.

Did this happen by "chance", or is it something that I intentionally seek, asking God to make fruitful for me. There is a lot to unpack here.