Choir Notes

Courage

From Music and The Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4276

It’s remarkable what we can accomplish if we have courage, if we refuse to be afraid. Fear is a toxic feeling that can consume self-confidence, dampen hope, and keep us from doing our best or sometimes even trying at all.

Courage, however, can bring out the best in us. It doesn’t mean we will always win. Courageous people learn how to grow from unsuccessful efforts. They succeed more often and at higher levels because they are willing to try—and then to keep trying.

Courage is required in every aspect of life. It certainly takes great courage for a soldier to go into battle, but it also takes great courage for a child to move to a different city, start school again, and make new friends. Courage is clearly needed to fight fires and enforce the law, but courage is just as necessary to wage a battle against despair and defeat, loneliness and loss. Sometimes just getting up in the morning, going to work, and doing our daily tasks can be courageous victories!

Courage helps us deal with the fears and difficulties of life. If we are to survive life’s challenges and grow all that is good in our life, we cannot be ruled by fear. And so, there is no real happiness, no real peace, apart from courage.

Very often we don’t realize how courageous we have been until an event, trial, or adversity is over. In hindsight, we see courageous moments that unfolded like banners of bravery. Then when life presents new hardships, we can draw strength from those courageous moments and remember them.

As we face new challenges, as we move along the life course and grow older, courage can be our trusted companion all along the way.