Happy Friday, Friends!
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! What do you say? Let’s create a masterpiece today!
I am pursuing a certification in Servant Leadership from eCornell. The class I am currently taking is titled, “Courage, Humility, and Compassion.” I want to share a few excerpts from the e-book we are reading. It is titled Building Leadership Character, and it was written by Amy Newman.
“As with trust, courage is demonstrated in any job and in small moves – less typically by war heroes or people running into a burning house to save a cat. An employee demonstrates courage by refusing to work overtime to attend a family event. A manager demonstrates courage by speaking out against an unfair policy. A client demonstrates courage by questioning an invoice because the product is defective.”
“In his book Moral Courage, Rushworth Ridder identifies three elements of moral courage: “a commitment to moral principles, an awareness of the danger involved in supporting those principles, and a willing endurance of that danger.””
“To encourage means to fill with courage, spirit, or confidence. We get discouraged when we’re deprived of these qualities.”
I am going to focus on the 1st and 3rd excerpt – I just shared the 2nd one so we would all have a definition and understanding of what is meant by moral courage.
My perspective was greatly shifted when I read, “An employee demonstrates courage by refusing to work overtime to attend a family event.” I had never looked at courage that way however it makes sense to me. A person is taking a stand for something that is important to them. Have you ever been there? Me too! My only question this morning is this; are we doing it consistently? Are we honoring our own spirit or are there times when we are compromising it?
Look, I get it. Each person must determine for themselves if they have a “willing endurance of that danger” or, to say it another way, that whatever the consequences might be, they are worth it. Where are the lines drawn in our lives? Each will decide. If you think about it, there is a price to be paid either way. We can either rise, be courageous, and endure whatever may come as a result, or we can compromise our moral principles and feel the ceaseless crying out of our own spirit. Both are painful, however I have found that when I honor my principles, regardless of the ramifications of those choices, I have a deep, abiding peace in my spirit. To me, that is priceless.
When you look at the definition of encourage and then to understand that we get discouraged when we’re deprived of being filled with courage, spirit, or confidence, it makes my heart hurt. There are a whole lot of precious souls that are discouraged. What role will you and I play in their lives? Will we ignore them? Will we care? Are we brave enough to pray for eyes to see, ears to heart, a heart to care, and then to be the one to fill them with courage, spirit, or confidence? Let’s be the person we need when we feel discouraged – and we all do sometimes. Yes, this will be a courageous act however how does the risk involved compare to possibly setting a soul free to become all they were created to be. Maybe they just needed one person to stand up for them, to believe in them, to fill them with courage, spirit, or confidence. Maybe what they needed was you!
I want to share two quotes that have always inspired me. I pray that I will be the courageous man, husband, father, leader, and friend that God created me to be and that those that I am blessed to have in my life need me to be.
“When a brave man [person] takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” - Billy Graham
“Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.” - Mark Twain
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious family, and please stay well!
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment