Most people imagine their role models when they think about courageous people. However, even “ordinary” people like you and me have had experiences in which we have had to push ourselves out of our comfort zones. My neighbor Melissa is a great example of that kind of person.
“I’d like to say [that I’m pretty adventurous],” she said. “I’ve gone cliff jumping several times which is one of my favorite things to do… this summer I went to the Dominican Republic and jumped off of waterfalls which was fun. I am always down to try new things.”
Even though Melissa can do scary things, she still has her fears. Courage is not second nature to her.
“One of the scariest things I’ve done was rope swinging…you had to just grab on to the rope, swing out over the lake, and let go.”
Melissa’s experiences with rope swinging, cliff jumping, and other adventures have led her to develop her own ideas about courage. Although scary, these aren’t what she defines as her most courageous moments. She said that the times she has acted with the most courage, she was “Doing something even though its hard and because [she] knew it was right.”
Last week, one of the ways we defined courage was “standing up for what is right.” Melissa’s definition is similar, but her experiences will help illustrate this idea better. She knows that there are countless ways to show courage, from the smallest individual acts to the bravery shown by leaders that inspires change in others.
“When you think of courage and you think of Martin Luther King Jr. or Ruth from the scriptures… doing things that were really hard, but not just because it didn’t matter.” She continues, “It was hard because people were oppressing them. I think that is a little more courageous than just walking up to a random person and pulling a prank on them.” These people had more purpose behind their actions.
When Melissa was serving an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she saw how having a purpose made a difference in her service. After returning, Melissa was able to look back and analyze those times when she was courageous.
“The times I was most courageous was when I understood my “purpose” or why I was doing a certain thing.
“The ‘why’ behind it allowed me to do the ‘how.’” When she approached people she didn’t know, she thought to herself, “the reason I am doing this is because I love Christ and I love God and I love this gospel and It has changed my life so I want to help it change their lives.
“And when that’s the motivation… the “why” for what you are doing, the courage comes. When you know the ‘why’ of things, I feel like it is a lot easier to do something.”
Melissa concluded her thoughts on talking about her own courage by questioning whether she will ever have great courage like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, or Susan B. Anthony.
“I would like to think that I could [have courage like them], but how can you say that? These people were not only putting their own lives in danger but their families’ lives and that’s where it would be harder for me. So, I don’t know if I would have that courage.”
In my own opinion, I don’t know if I would be able to have that much courage either. However, I do think that even the smallest acts of simple courage can make a difference if we do them with a purpose in mind. Find your own “why” and you can develop great courage too.
Thanks so much for reading. Please comment below as I would love to hear your thoughts about this post. You can also follow me on Instagram: Penned by Rose, and Twitter: @pennedbyrose.
