“Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” Proverbs 3:25-26
Welcome to term 2 of the school year! I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break this past week, and is ready to return to school on Tuesday. Upon our return we will start a new character trait and proverb. For this month our trait will be “courage” and our definition of courage is, “doing what is right, especially when it is difficult.” We all know how easy it is to do the right thing when everyone else is doing it, or it is popular, or culturally acceptable. It is exponentially harder when it goes against the flow.
Mark Twain once observed, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.” To be sure, there are plenty of scenarios when we are called up to put ourselves in harm's way for the good of others. However, I am convinced that the opportunities to display moral courage are far more common. I am also afraid that those opportunities are only going to grow as the larger culture departs ever further from God’s standard.
If we consider our biblical proverb for a moment it gives us a tremendous amount of hope. We are told (hundreds of times in the Bible) “do not be afraid.” Why? Quite simply because “the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” We can confidently stand on God’s Word and the truth contained therein because our hope is not rooted in ourselves, or the wishy-washy ideas and standards of the world, but on the unshakeable rock of Jesus Christ.
Will we face opposition and pressure from the world? Of course we will. Will they call us nasty names? Probably. Did Jesus experience all of that? Absolutely. It takes courage to do what is right when it seems like the whole world is screaming at us to do otherwise. However, we can rest assured, and have deep seated confidence, knowing that when we take our stand on God’s truth, we are standing with the Almighty God of the universe.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Christian Herring
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