Courage

Courage.  It is a quality that many admire, but one that can be dangerous for one's well-being or safety.  Too often today we see people buckling under pressure and recanting ideas rather than face opposition.  Two movies offer beautiful examples of characters making the right decision and courageously facing whatever outcome will happen.

The first one comes from the 2005 movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  After running from the forces of the evil White Witch, Peter Pevensie is forced to make a crucial decision on his own.  Informed that the Witch's army is at hand, Peter must decide to fight or flee.

Peter is ready to enter battle for a free Narnia

But this fateful decision is not for himself alone.  If he decides to stand and fight, Peter must commit the entire free Narnian army, as well as his brother, to a conflict against the numerically superior enemy.  Peter decides to engage in battle, and he positions himself in the front line.  Even though it may cost him everything, Peter Pevensie has the courage to fight for a free Narnia against immense opposition.

A similar selfless courage is found in (of all places) the 1991 animated movie Beauty and the Beast.  In the movie, a self-centered prince is turned into a beast as punishment.  Unless he can learn to love and be loved in return before his enchanted rose dies, he will remain a beast.  Beast falls in love with a girl he imprisoned named Belle, and she begins to see the change in him from selfish to caring.  But at the same time, she desperately wants to see her father again. 

"I release you...you are no longer my prisoner."

Time is now running out fast for Beast: the rose will die in less than 6 hours.  If she can remain with him just a little longer...perhaps he can return to humanity again.  After an internal struggle, Beast tells Belle, "You must go to him...you are no longer my prisoner" and Belle rides off to be reunited with her father.  After his decade-long experience as a monster inside and out, the Beast has the courage to sacrifice his own wishes and desires--in fact, his one chance at returning to humanity--for someone that he loves deeply.

Stand courageously!