V is for Valiant

This one will be short because this is an obvious virtue.

To be valiant is to defined as showing courage and determination. But I think being valiant has more to do with sticking to what is right.

I mean, have you ever really heard of a valiant Nazi?

The factor of truth is what makes being valiant a virtue. It isn't just courage and determination. Hitler was determined to take over Europe. And I'm sure when he started in his career, it took courage to stand in front of a crowd to speak. But what he was sharing was so awful, so sick and wrong that it took an enormous amount of truly valiant people to stop him.

So, being valiant has more to do with defending truth and what is good. The rest is a counterfeit.


Hmmm. Speaking of counterfeits, I think I'll do a post on them in the future. I have noticed that the world we live in is full of counterfeits posing as truths. For example, half-truths are still lies. It was how Lucifer tempted Eve...he told a half-truth. The truth she grasped, the lie, she didn't.

There are a lot of counterfeit virtues out there. And some virtues are also twisted or "wrested" into something not true at all.

For example, let's take the word sacrifice... The  true meaning of sacrifice has been so brutalized that people tend to use it to mean taking something and destroying it to get something else you want - either God's favor or an ultimate goal. Like the saying: "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Yet sacrifice in its pure form is defined first by Merriam Webster as: "the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone." Which is closer to the truth.

How do I know it is the truth? Because something inside of well-adjusted human beings revolts at the concept of human sacrifice, collateral damage, and animal sacrifice. Even killing an animal for food is difficult for the majority of meat eaters, and they would rather have someone else do it. My mother grew up on a farm, and she would say that it took a lot to kill a chicken. Not just the physical difficulty actually catching and killing it, but getting up the nerve to. It takes a sort of numbing yourself out of general practice. You get used to it.

But this is a complete tangent, due for another day.

The opposite of valiant? Cowardly and timid. Such as being afraid to stand up for your beliefs. Or trying hard to blend in with the crowd because you don't want to stand out.

Valiant people stand out.

People like:
Martin Luther King Jr.  Nelson Mandela. Joan of Arc. Florence Nightingale. Cochise. Gandhi. Malala Yousafzai. Chief Joseph. George Washington. Harriet Tubman. Susan B. Anthony. Rosa Parks. Emmeline B. Wells. Hans and Sophie Scholl. etc...

It is a title given to kings:
Bolesław I Chrobry
Edgar, King of Scotland
Theodoric II, Duke of Lorraine

And legendary heroes:
Halfdan the Valiant
Lucy Pevensie

Truth is, all of us want to be valiant. It is just so scary to actually do. Because many valiant people die for their beliefs.

Such as Helmuth Hubner, who, like the Scholls, spoke out against Hitler.
(yeah... it all comes back to the Nazis for some reason. They were just so nasty that it is hard to think of anything worse to stand up against.)


Being valiant is the quality we love in our fictional heroes. And though we love their back story, their humanity, and their foibles, we love them more because they did not give up.

How is this a Godly trait?
Honestly, any good father is valiant in the defense and teaching of his children. God, being the ultimate Father, is valiant in continually teaching us, even when we spit in His face. And He does not give up on us. His faith in our capacity to learn from life is definitely a sign that he is valiant.

V is for Valiant