I have a bad habit. When I go to bed at night, instead of going to sleep, I think. Last night, or perhaps it was early this morning, I was thinking "what a pity we have such a distorted sense of courage. We teach our children that to be courageous, is to be unafraid." I think this is wrong. I know I have been afraid of many things all my life and today, beset as we are with so many tensions, anxieties, and fears, I feel sure many of you out there feel as I often do. I want to run away from it all, turn my back on it, and give up. That is fear. Where does courage come in? I think courage comes in when we face all our problems, when we tackle all our anxieties in spite of our fears. I have never been ashamed of my fears because I have always had sufficient faith to confront them head on and work the problems out. I think it is important that children learn very early in life, that it is natural and human to be afraid, but that with faith the good Lord and ones self, fear can be overcome with the courage required to do the job. We hear kiddies say to one another, "Were are you afraid?" With considerable bravo, the answer is usually, "No, I wasn't afraid”, when actually this was not the case. I would much prefer to hear, "Sure, I was afraid, but I did the job anyhow". I think then real courage would be in proper perspective.
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