All posts tagged: courage

Bold and Courageous Leadership

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“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” — William Shedo “Boldness, more boldness, and always boldness!” — George Jacques Danton “Courage is the enforcing virtue, the one that makes possible all the other virtues common to exceptional leaders: honesty, integrity, confidence, compassion and humility.” — John McCain  “Leaders make decisions that create the future they desire.” — Mike Murdock “Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self-reliance, faith, honesty and industry. Don’t take too much advice — keep at the helm and steer your own ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of the work. Fire above the mark you intend to hit. Energy, invincible determination with the right motive, are the levers that move the world.” — Noah Porter  “The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.” — Faye Wattleton _____________________ Resource: Leadership Quotes

In our world no one is rubbish

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Spend a few days on Africa Mercy Ship and you will see how two worlds collide at the intersection of courage and compassion. I lived in Togo for about 8 years as a missionary. So I am very pleased to see Mercy Ship back in Togo. The story of few doctors and nurses reaching, serving and touching lives of people who have been utterly rejected and labelled rubbish. Take a few minutes of your time and watch this video you will not regret it. Their story was featured in ’60 Minutes’ which aired Sunday Night on CBS. This is what the Christians are all about – looking right into the eyes of the hurting and ostracized to say “you are God’s child – and you are not rubbish.” This one is for all my SISTAS who were told that they are damaged goods… that is a lie straight from hell. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

20 Seconds of insane Courage

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Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 What you need is just 20 seconds of insane courage. Literally, just twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery. And I promise you something great will come out of it. Did you know that the phrase – “Be strong and courageous occurs more than 10 times in the NIV Bible? This must be pretty important for the Lord to remind us over and again. So give yourself permission today to “be strong and courageous.” No matter to outcome of your courage or bravery, just make sure that fear doesn’t paralyze you.

Fear is not real – It’s a choice…

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2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and sound-mind. The only thing we have to fear is fear it’self – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. FDR – First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933 What are fears but voices airy? Whispering harm where harm is not. And deluding the unwary Till the fatal bolt is shot! Wordsworth Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. Edgar Wallace – The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916) All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears–of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words “Some Assembly Required. Dave Barry Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not? Luciano Pavarotti Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is. German Proverb I was particularly struck by Will Smith’s …

Top five (5) Things that Paralyze a Leader

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Lack of prayer power… Allen Vartlette once said that “seven days without prayer makes one weak.” A prayerless leader is a paralyzed leader. He has no power to lead. He has no inspiration to lead. He has nothing to move him forward. I don’t know where we got this prideful thinking that we are more creative than God himself is. We go about doing things without him. Prayer makes a world of difference in our decision making process. It makes a world of difference in our leadership abilities. I wish that we could take it a bit more seriously. Because prayer avails much… James 5:16 Lack of courage… “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke Doing nothing express no risk, exerts no initiative, and experiences no reward or truimph. Doing nothing is the natural bent of most men. Nothing is the fruit of passivity. Nothing is the consequence of a lack of conviction. It’s the by-product of lazy leadership at home, at church and in …

Courage in the Valley

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In his book “Stepping Up” Dennis Rainey writes, “there are moments and seasons in life that a man can’t possibly prepare for. He is dropped into combat without warning.” He than goes on to share eight lessons he learned about tragedy and loss. Lessons he learned first hand after the passing of his third grandchild Molly. I would like to highlight five of the eight today to encourage you to realize that our greatest test as men come in the valleys of life and those are the times we need to man up and step up and show up. You don’t have to understand all of God’s purpose to step up and be His man You can still have doubts and step up You are no less a courageous man if you are faced with situations that you cannot fix and about which you don’t know what to do but cry out to God in prayer You will need another good man standing alongside you when you journey through the valley You must know the truth about who God …

Long way home

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My 9 year old daughter is usually not in a great mode in the morning. From the time her alarm goes off, to shower time, breakfast, bible reading and prayer to the moment we kiss goodby at school, you better tread carefully with her. But today was not like one of those days. She’s got a little cool thing…alarm/cd/radio in her room that she has set to her favorite christian radio station. So every morning she wakes up with christian songs blasting through the house. Like I said, she is not in a great mode every morning, but when she is, it results into days like today – singing, laughter, she even reads her portion of the scripture loud and clear and makes a comment about it. Today we drove to school singing one of her favorite songs – and I have been singing it all day today. Thought I share it with everyone!