Grant Patton You and Me

     Near the beginning of the American Civil War, U.S. Grant (who later became the president of the United States), was sent on his first mission as a young commander to face an opponent near the Missouri and Illinois border. He was nervous as a _______(you fill in the blank space), and scared.  Over a hill in front of him were the opposing forces, and the closer to the top of the hill he rode, the more nervous he became.

     When he topped the hill, the opposing forces were not there…they had retreated!  Turned out that the opposing commander was more nervous and scared than he was and backed off.  Grant was no different than any other human, but he had the courage to continue on, and face whatever fate was over that hill.

     Both Abraham Lincoln and grant knew that the union would eventually win the civil war because of attrition --- the North had more manpower to draw upon than the South.

     During the 2nd World War, one of the most feared commanders by the enemy was George S. Patton Jr.!  For my purposes here, I have listed a few quotes by him.

     “No sane man is unafraid in battle, but discipline produces in him a form of vicarious courage.”

     “Success is how you bounce on the bottom.”

     “It’s the unconquerable soul of man, not the nature of the weapon he uses, that insures victory.”

     “In case of doubt, attack.”

     “Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”

     You and I can learn a lot from them, and of course, many others. For instance; when we are pursuing our dreams, not matter how scared we become, we need to delve deep into our brain and remember that our number one enemy is usually ourselves…because we allow our doubts and fears to overcome our courage to fight on.  \

     Through learning what we need to know about whatever we wish to accomplish, through discipline, and through faith in ourselves, our courage will be amplified to such a height that we will eventually win over our doubts and fears through, if nothing else, attrition…it will be just a matter of time before we succeed.

     Naturally, as with every human being, there will be times when we seem to be faced with such an enormous amount of insurmountable problems that we just want to give up. However; it is at this point when we need to realize that we appear to be beaten, only from our perspective…and that we do have an unconquerable soul within us to draw upon. And once we grasp onto the boundless faith and courage that abides there, we will bounce off of the bottomless pit we are in.  Because not only new faith in ourselves will be forthcoming, but we will also realize that our imaginations will be scanning our brain cells and spew forth new ideas and methods of attaining our dreams.  \

     But there are times when we need outside encouragement; and here I am reminded of a clash between myself and another fellow in high school, who was being encouraged by several others around us, and who was winning our encounter.  To this day, I have no idea who she was, but one single female voice was encouraging me, and she caused something inside me to billow up, and the fight was over in less than a minute more…and I won!

     If you require outside motivation, remember that when you improve yourself, you automatically improve your family, your community, and your country. And if you really need some over-powering encouragement, just look into your children’s eyes…they have a strange way of telling you that they want and need your guidance, your love, your protection, and your encouragement without saying a word. And then just imagine what you can do next!