What Is a Hero?

(I usually blog every four days, but I am making an exception today, National Heroes Day. I had just posted a blog early this morning and now, before the morning is over, I am posting one again.) 

As we thank the Lord for the lives of our big-time heroes who did big things for our country, let us not forget to also thank Him for the many heroes around us who may not be honored in a proper forum, or may not even be recognized in their lifetime. 

What is a hero?

Philippine Daily Inquirer Junior Edition defines it as "ordinary people doing extraordinary things."

This I had not read till I received two separate text messages with the same content from my good friend Luis and my sister Aie. They advised me to check out yesterday’s issue of Junior Inquirer. A 10-year-old kid singled me out as her everyday hero! 

Instantly, I had the whole household scurrying to find the newspaper. We found it in seconds (encircling mine).

And true enough, on the front page, a girl named Victoria Albitos wrote these words:

Among all the awards I have received as an author, this one’s a oner; it has its own hallowed place on my shelf of treasures.

I have always cherished the thought that unknown heroes are strewn everywhere. In fact, I wrote about 45 of them in a series of three books. Unlike Junior Inquirer’s tag of  Everyday Heroes, however, I called them Gifts of Grace.

They are one and the same.

And to be cited as a modern-day hero in a major daily by a young girl named Victoria (putting into words what I try hard to do with my storybooks, the only reason I write), this blogger will always remember National heroes Day 2014.   

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)