Courage

Last night Steve and I went to see the movie The Hobbit.  Good movie.  Get comfortable; it's 3 hours long.  Peter Jackson doesn't know how to make a short movie.  And this is just 1/3 of the book.

Anyway, Gandolf finds a sword in a cave and give it to Bilbo.  The Hobbit replies that he doesn't know anything about using a sword.  Gandolf says, "True courage is not about knowing when to take a life but when to spare one."

It's probably rare that you or I have to decide if we are going to take a life or spare it, but expand the thought a little bit.  Think about the weapon we use all the time -- our words.  It is easy to cut someone with what we say.  Even if it doesn't physically kill them, it does kill something, each time we do it. 

Perhaps true courage could also be sparing people from the barbs of our words -- building them up instead of tearing them down.

There is alot of talk lately about 26 random acts of kindness.  Maybe some of mine and some of yours could be kind acts of speech.