{"id":13105,"date":"2026-07-12T20:40:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/?page_id=13105"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:48:10","slug":"a-winning-spirit-1-of-2-saturday-july-18-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/a-winning-spirit-1-of-2-saturday-july-18-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"A Winning Spirit (1 of 2) – Saturday, July 18, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

So\u00a0David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David –\u00a01 Samuel 17:50<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Although the most climactic minutes in the movie Men of Honor<\/em> are when Carl Brashear successfully walked 12 steps wearing a 290-pound diving suit, head covered by a copper helmet, in excruciating pain, the real pivotal point occurred much earlier. First, there was Carl\u2019s decision to have the severely injured portion of his leg amputated and to undergo rigorous rehabilitation that included a prosthetic. Second, he chose to allow disgraced Master Chief Billy Sunday\u2014a racist bigot and staunch nemesis\u2014to help prepare him physically for the demands of being a Navy diver. Carl\u2019s unrelenting focus required him to remove all obstacles to his dream, which he eventually secured, becoming the first African American Master Diver in the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n

Cuba Gooding Jr. is excellently cast as the real-life Carl Brashear, a man with unwavering determination. This trait is perfectly conveyed when his girlfriend asks why he is so committed, and Carl responds: “Because they said I couldn’t have it.” “They” represented every discriminatory practice that prevented individuals of color\u2014specifically Black people\u2014from achieving the same accomplishments that White people were granted. Therefore, Carl chose to break the glass ceiling of racism that infiltrated many institutions during the 1960s, including the military.<\/p>\n

David possessed the same fierce tenacity when he single-handedly chose to face Goliath with only a sling and one stone.\u00a0 However, David\u2019s real weapon was his faith in God and a mindset that perfectly embodies a winning spirit. And it\u2019s a spirit that is embedded in anyone determined to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So\u00a0David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David –\u00a01 Samuel 17:50 Although the most climactic minutes in the movie Men of Honor are when Carl Brashear successfully walked 12 steps wearing a 290-pound diving … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Winning Spirit (1 of 2) – Saturday, July 18, 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13105","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13108,"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13105\/revisions\/13108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2beencouraged.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}