Character Quality of the Month – Endurance v. Discouragement


The inward strength to withstand stress and do my best.

My former Chief of Staff, Barney Barnes (every sheriff needs a Barney…), added this insightful comment on endurance. I wanted to share it with you in the main body of this post…

Sheriff Ray

Endurance has always been a necessary quality for those who seek to serve with integrity. If we look at the word “endure,” a transitive verb, we get a clearer picture of this quality. Endure comes to us from the same root word that we get “durable” and it literally means “to harden.” From Webster’s 1828 Dictionary we get the real application principle…”To remain in the same state without perishing.”

I believe that is what we are ultimately called to do…we do not just merely survive, or barely survive, the many challenges we face…we maintain our integrity (our wholeness) throughout the crisis or episode of danger.

For many years I have found that having a “survival” attitude present with me at all times will assist in kicking in the endurance mode when necessary. They are like complementary concepts. As the old saying goes, we never really know what threat is around the next corner. It could be a bad guy or it could be a health, financial or relationship crisis.

Whatever it is we face we must have that inward quality of endurance so that we can be sure to “remain in the same state without perishing.”

We must also remember that it is essenial to

Keep your powder dry,

Barney


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One Response to Character Quality of the Month – Endurance v. Discouragement

  1. John R. "Barney" Barnes says:
    June 5, 2010 at 7:14 am

    Endurance has always been a necessary quality for those who seek to serve with integrity. If we look at the word “endure”, a transitive verb, we get a clearer picture of this quality. Endure comes to us from the same root word that we get “durable” and it literally means “to harden”. From Webster’s 1828 Dictionary we get the real application principle…”To remain in the same state without perishing.”

    I believe that is what we are ultimately called to do…we do not just merely survive or barely survive the many challenges we face…we maintain our integrity (our wholeness)throughout the crisis or episode of danger.

    For many years I have found that having a “survival” attitude present with me at all times will assist in kicking in the endurance mode when necessary. They are like complimentary concepts. As the old saying goes we never really know what threat is around the next corner. It could be a bad guy or it could be a health, financial or relationship crisis.

    Whatever it is we face we must have that inward quality of endurance so that we can be sure to “remain in the same state without perishing”.

    We must also remember that it is essenial to

    Keep your powder dry,

    Barney

    Reply

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