{"id":38055,"date":"2020-07-17T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T18:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/95-year-old-veteran-gives-young-boy-lesson-in-courage\/"},"modified":"2020-07-17T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T18:17:00","slug":"95-year-old-veteran-gives-young-boy-lesson-in-courage","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/95-year-old-veteran-gives-young-boy-lesson-in-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"95-Year-Old Veteran Gives Young Boy a Lesson in Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All summer long four-hear-old Dylan Stitch was afraid to dive off the diving board. Dylan&#39;s mom, Marla said, &ldquo;He had no interest in it, ever. We were just saying, &#39;Hey, you want to give it a shot? You want to give it a try?&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Enter 95-year-old Daniel Biss, who was in the Air Force during World War II and the Korean War. He knows a thing or two about fear and bravery. So, when he saw a neighbor kid at a family pool party, and heard everyone trying to coax him off the board, he knew exactly what Dylan needed.<\/p>\n\n<p>Daniel said, &ldquo;Just needed some convincing, I guess. I was going to try.&quot; So, Daniel borrowed a swimsuit, and with cane in hand stepped up to set the example. The great-grandfather hadn&#39;t been on a diving board in 50 years. Yet he stood up on one, ready to teach a lesson in courage, which nearly turned into a lesson in first aid.<\/p>\n\n<p>Marla said, &ldquo;Everyone kind of held their breath and got real nervous like, &lsquo;Oh, was this a bad idea?&rsquo;&rdquo; Daniel said, &ldquo;I was up there that far, I figured I may as well go through with it.&rdquo; So, at the age of 95, he dove for Dylan.<\/p>\n\n<p>It wasn&#39;t the prettiest dive, but he couldn&#39;t have done better&#8211;because shortly after Daniel took his last jump off a diving board, Dylan took his first. Marla said, &ldquo;It was really neat that that inspired him to do it. It was a neat moment.&quot; Today Dylan jumps with no problem. Hopefully his courage will now inspire you, with whatever leap you need to make.<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3512,3555,3569,3701,3793,3862,3908,3977,4091,4258,4458,4849,4853,5179,5230],"tax_ctp_topics":[380,395],"class_list":["post-38055","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-challenges","tax_ctp_tags-children","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-discipleship","tax_ctp_tags-encouragement","tax_ctp_tags-example","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-death","tax_ctp_tags-grandparents-day","tax_ctp_tags-inspiration","tax_ctp_tags-mentor","tax_ctp_tags-risk","tax_ctp_tags-role-models","tax_ctp_tags-training","tax_ctp_tags-veterans-day"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>95-Year-Old Veteran Gives Young Boy a Lesson in Courage - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/95-year-old-veteran-gives-young-boy-lesson-in-courage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"95-Year-Old Veteran Gives Young Boy a Lesson in Courage - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All summer long four-hear-old Dylan Stitch was afraid to dive off the diving board. 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