"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."" Most people in the world have heard these phrases at some point in his or her life. Both of these quotes can be used to demonstrate the idea of perseverance. Perseverance is endurance, patience, and "hanging in there- in spite of obstacles, adversity, or suffering. The idea of perseverance can be traced back all the way to biblical times, as will be discussed later. It was important back then to persevere, and to this day it is still a very important and vital virtue to have.
The story of "The Little Steam Engine- which is found in The Book Of Virtues is a good example of perseverance. The little steam engine was faced with a problem. It was too hard for him to pull his cars up a hill by himself. Instead of just giving up and quitting, he decided to ask others for help. He came across many obstacles though. The other steam engines kept refusing to help him. He did not get discouraged though. He kept on asking others until eventually he came across another small engine that agreed to help him. Together they were strong enough to pull the cars up the hill. As one can see from that story, the steam engine's hard work and determination were rewarded. (530-532) .
Another example of the importance of perseverance can be found in The Holy Bible. Hebrews 12:1 states, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."" (1170) Sin is a problem in everybody's life. It is impossible to get away from it, but that does not mean that we just sit there and allow it to destroy us. We must constantly be in a struggle to overcome it. We can not allow ourselves to become stagnant. We must constantly be striving to keep on running. Perseverance is very important for all Christians to have.
