COURAGE

The doctor struggled to look his patient straight in the eyes as he quietly said, “I am afraid that you are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.”

My mother-in-law stammered, “Are you sure?”

“Well, I am sure that you have it, but Alzheimer’s can only be definitively diagnosed by autopsy.”

“Well, that’s a little premature!” she quipped. She had obviously not lost her quick tongue and sharp sense of humor. Her son and the doctor both laughed.
Over the next few years, she entertained us by making jokes about her memory lapses. She cackled even louder when she caught one of her baby boomer children in their own senior moments.

In my youth, courage was not at the top of my “wish list”. The need for courage inferred that circumstances would arise requiring it. I thought that that if I mastered the “how-to” of being a Christian, all of my circumstances would be perfect, calm and good-- certainly not such that required courage. As I watched this courageous woman face her frightening future, I began to pray for courage in my own life.

I had taken to heart Psalm 71:18: “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, til I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” I thought of mentoring and teaching as ways to transmit knowledge of the Lord’s faithfulness to the next generation. My mother-in-law’s unexpected modeling of courage made me wonder, are values taught or caught? What better way to declare the Lord’s power to the next generation than to face with courage the challenges that life brings.