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Chinese	yong	brave; daring courage
French	le courage	strength of character, steadiness or resoluteness in the face of danger, suffering or difficult situations; zeal for undertaking something or a strong desire to do something
German	beherzt	brave, spirited, stouthearted, courageous
Spanish	coraje	courage, bravery, valor

Eight-year-old Talmadge: "Yeah-it takes real courage to be a chicken." Dad: "What do you mean by that?" Talmadge: "Well, I mean, like if kids are trying to get you to do something that you don't think is right - or it's really, really dangerous, and they're saying you're chicken, then it takes real courage to be a chicken and say, Yeah, I'm a chicken." Dad: "Now, why couldn't I have said it like that?" We had been talking about courage, and I'd been trying, in my long-winded way, to explain the difference between the true courage of being a leader for the right, standing up for what you believe, and resisting peer pressure and the false courage of accepting dares, taking risks, being foolhardy. I had been trying to communicate the idea that real bravery was an inner thing, closely related to integrity and being true to yourself, and unrelated to the sort of outward bravado and macho chance taking that seems to be the message of so much of our media. It was there that Talmadge interrupted with, "Yeah, it takes real courage to be a chicken." - Richard   What resources do you draw from in making difficult decisions? Have you ever been pressured into doing something you later regretted or realized was wrong? Do you have the courage to decide differently today? Where does conviction come from? What is something for which you have a strong conviction?

Christianity "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." - Bible, Romans 12:21 "Be strong, and let your heart take courage." - Bible, Psalm 31:24 "As you know, we had courage in our God in the face of great opposition." - Bible, I Thessalonians 2:2   Our family had returned to England for six months with two objectives: first, to get away from interruptions and commitments long enough to finish some writing; second, to get the children into British schools for a couple of terms to broaden their horizons. After the first four months we were meeting the first objective and doing pretty well on the second- with the exception of ten-year-old Jonah. Fate had dealt him a schoolteacher who went beyond the expected British firmness and discipline and was just plain mean. And among the usually polite British children in his class were a couple of boys who picked on him, and a whole group who tried to get him to use bad language. On top of it all, Jonah got a respiratory infection that turned into pneumonia and put him into the hospital. By the time he recovered, there were only two or three weeks of the school year left, and Jonah, quite naturally, could see very little point in going back and a big bunch of reasons for staying home. We expected that if he didn't go back, he would always view the England experience as a negative one. Yet we didn't go back, he would always view the England experience as a negative one. Yet we didn't want to force him-so we had another family discussion on courage. With lots of help from his older brothers and sisters, we decided that courage meant doing hard things that were hard but that were also right or best in the long run. We talked about the rewards that come from choosing the difficult but right path. We talked about getting right back on a horse that bucks you off. But we tried to understand how he felt, and we left it up to Jonah. He couldn't quite bring himself to a commitment to go back for the rest of the term, but he finally worked up the spark of courage to say he'd to back to see how bad it was. At that point we decided it was time to leave as little as possible to chance. We visited privately with his teacher, telling her the situation and asking her to try to give more encouragement and less criticism. I walked to school the first day with Jonah, tried to meet several of his classmates, and talked with them about American football, their favorite subject, hoping that Jonah would feel comfortable continuing the conversation. And then we praised Jonah. Oh, how we praised him. "What courage, Jonah-what courage to go and do something that hard!" It turned out to be a great experience. He worked hard and got some A's those last few weeks. He tried had to follow instructions and got some commendations from his usually critical teacher. And he tried hard to have social interaction with classmates, but was strong in refusing to swear or use their bad language. Two or three of them admired him for it, became friends and later pen pals. We had tried to help Jonah implement courage, and his situation had helped us to define what the word meant. - Linda

ANNE FRANK (1929-1945) Born in Frankfurt, Germany, she enjoyed a good home with her parents and her sister Margot. After the Nazis took over Germany in 1933, the family moved to Amsterdam, Holland. Anne attended the Montessori School, but when the Nazis occupied Holland in 1940 she was forced to leave the school. When Margot received orders for deportation, Mr. Frank was prepared and moved his family of three, and an eighth man into two small apartments hidden in the rear of a warehouse where he worked. Friends supplied them with necessities, and they remained quiet during working hours and hidden during the night. They were betrayed, arrested and sent to Auschwitz, a concentration camp. Later they were sent to Bergen Beelines, where Anne perished. Her personal diary became famous as an example of courage and faith and as an account of life under the Nazi terror.

FEBRUARY - COURAGE