Are you choosing One Word for 2011? Share it here...

**paula** · January 15th, 2011, 09:41 AM

My word is CHERISH. With my oldest being a senior this year, and my middle child being a senior next year, I decided that I need to cherish these fleeting moments with them while they are here.

**Marie Elizabeth Lynn** · January 19th, 2011, 02:21 AM

My Word is Prudent or Prudence, alot of people say that word already applies to me. My family has always said that. But i've never felt I was really as prudent as i should have been in alot of my decisions..this year I want to make sure to remember that..remember that all my actions have consequences and I want to be able to be proud in every decision I make wether its something big or its just the decision to get up and read my devotions every morning..little things and big all affect us. But when for me this word also means something else I'm sure alot of people know the song 'Dear Prudence" By the Beatles..well I'm also thinking of that song when choosing this word (thats actually how i found it) I realized i didn't fully comprehend what the word meant i looked it up and found thats what alot of people assume I am and I do try to be that way but there are so many things I could do better on if I just made the decision to. But the song is also a reminder that you can make decisions that may not always be fun or easy but in the end something good comes out of it, it says theres nothing wrong with stopping to smell the flowers and that sometimes that can be the most prudent decision of all

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out to play

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing
That you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?

Look around round round
Look around round round
Oh look around

Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out to play= The Beatles <3

Prudence is the characteristic of exercising sound judgment in practical affairs. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtues (which are, with the three theological virtues, part of the seven virtues).
The word comes from Old French prudence (13th century), from Latin prudentia (foresight, sagacity), a contraction of providentia, foresight. It is often associated with wisdom, insight, and knowledge. In this case, the virtue is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and place. Although prudence itself does not perform any actions, and is concerned solely with knowledge, all virtues had to be regulated by it. Distinguishing when acts are courageous, as opposed to reckless or cowardly, for instance, is an act of prudence, and for this reason it is classified as a cardinal (pivotal) virtue.
Although prudence would be applied to any such judgment, the more difficult tasks, which distinguish a person as prudent, are those in which various goods have to be weighed against each other, as when a person is determining what would be best to give charitable donations, or how to punish a child so as to prevent repeating an offense.
In modern English, however, the word has become increasingly synonymous with cautiousness. In this sense, prudence names a reluctance to take risks, which remains a virtue with respect to unnecessary risks, but when unreasonably extended (i.e. over-cautiousness), can become the vice of cowardice.
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives a lengthy account of the virtue phronesis (Greek: ϕρονησιϛ), which has traditionally been translated as "prudence", although this has become increasingly problematic as the word has fallen out of common usage. More recently ϕρονησιϛ has been translated by such terms as "practical wisdom", "practical judgment," or "rational choice."