Sermon Illustrations
Poet Maya Angelou on Developing Courage
In an interview for Harvard Business Review, the poet Maya Angelou was asked about the most important lessons she learned from her mother. Ms. Angelou said:
I would say she encouraged me to develop courage. And she taught me by being courageous herself. And after years of leaving her and, I think, becoming courageous, I realized that one isn't born with courage. One develops it.
And you develop it by doing small, courageous things, in the same way that one wouldn't set out to pick up 100 pound bag of rice. If that was one's aim, the person would be advised to pick up a five pound bag, and then a ten pound, and then a 20 pound, and so forth, until one builds up enough muscle to actually pick up 100 pounds. And that's the same way with courage.
You develop courage by doing courageous things, small things, but things that cost you some exertion-mental and, I suppose, spiritual exertion.