His willingness to share a very personal story in a business setting was courageous and refreshing.

At a recent Cultivate Courage presentation I asked those in attendance to break into groups of 4-6 for a discussion.

I told them the conversation might be difficult for them and not to feel any pressure to participate if they didn’t feel led to do so.

It’s interesting. Whenever I do this exercise I provide people the opportunity to opt out. Few ever do. There is more to that story for another time.

The conversation was around the recognition that we should never underestimate the value of a crisis.

I shared with them my story of losing my job and my wife losing her job, going through our savings and having to sell our home at the very bottom of the market in 2011. We came out of the sale with just a few thousand dollars on a home that once had well over 100k in equity.

As I look back on that crisis time in our lives I see it as one of the best things that ever happened to us.

It took a while and we had to look in the rear view mirror but there was tremendous value for me and for us in that crisis.

After allowing them enough time for each member of the group to share something I ask them to pick one person to share their story with the large group.

This gentleman was chosen to share his story.

He began by telling us that he and his wife didn’t marry until they were well into their thirties. They wanted to have children but were unable to conceive.

They decided to go the adoption route and were excited by that option.

Multiple times they were led to near completion of an adoption only to have the rug pulled out from under them.

In one instance, they were swindled out of many thousands of dollars from an agency that ran quite the scam.

They made the decision they were done and decided to live the best lives they could as husband and wife and put aside their desire to have a child.

Out of the blue they got a call from a friend who had a granddaughter that was going to give up her baby for adoption.

Fear stepped in as they pondered this new development.

We’ve been down this road too many times and been hurt every time.

We’ve taken all the disappointment we can take and we can’t do it anymore.

Those were some of the thoughts they had.

Then he said this, “We had the courage to persevere and go down that road one more time.”

He teared up a little bit and his voice cracked a little bit as well as he told of this little baby they adopted that has now grown into a young lady.

Even though they thought quite seriously about giving up, he and his wife had the courage to face the pain of rejection one more time. That courage paid off far more than they could have ever imagined.

What is the dragon you are facing today?

Are you thinking of giving up?

Sometimes it takes courage to end the journey and walk away. Just make sure you don’t do it too soon.

In spite of how long the odds look, have the courage to just hang in there just a little bit longer!

Philippians 3:14

Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!

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