Some of the most exciting stories are about men and women who rise to the occasion. Firefighters rescue people from danger. Police officers stop the bad guys in their tracks. Medal of Honor heroes risk their lives in serving others, sometimes paying the ultimate price in their sacrifice. Truly, their bravery is admirable.

But everyday heroes are all around us: housewives, grandparents, students, secretaries, truck drivers, accountants, teachers, and nurses. No matter who we are or what we do, we can all be heroes.

"Hero" does not appear in the New King James Version of the Bible. However, in other translations, the Hebrew word, gibbor (Strong's #1368), is rendered as "hero," sometimes alone or with descriptors. When gibbor is used as a noun, the Angel of the Lord calls Gideon a gibbor ḥayil, a "mighty hero" (Judges 6:12; New Living Translation [NLT]), and I Samuel 17:51 (New International Version) describes the Philistines fleeing after David cut off Goliath's head, their gibbor, their "hero." When gibbor is used as an adjective, it can be translated as "mighty," as in Isaiah 9:6, where it modifies El, "Mighty God."

With this in mind, II Samuel 22:26 adds a vital key for personal heroism: "With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless." Here, in combination with the Hebrew word tamim, gibbor is translated as "a blameless man" (KJV: "the upright man"), signifying moral integrity in personal behavior. Tamim connotes wholeness, completeness, and maturity, a genuine and undivided dedication to godly living, a devout quest for holiness.

A blameless individual, like Abraham, could be called a hero of faith. As Romans 4:16 says, he is the father of the faithful. True Christians are his spiritual children, and God calls us, as He called him, to join in His covenant and become "heroes" of righteousness!

But how can we accomplish this charge to be blameless Christian heroes? There are multiple ways, but three paths easily come to mind to achieve this:

First, one can be a hero by being a good parent. God speaks of the importance of parents' responsibilities in Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 7:

Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, . . . that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all of His statutes and His commandments . . . that your days may be prolonged. . . . You shall teach [these words] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Living by God's commandments prolongs not only our lives, but the lives of our children. That is true heroism!

Statistics show the consequences of the failure of proper parenting:

• 90% of all homeless and runaway children, 71% of all high school dropouts, and 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes.

• Single mothers raised 70% of long-term inmates in state juvenile detention centers. The strongest predictor of whether a person will end up in prison is having a single parent.

• Girls raised in fatherless homes are more than twice as likely to become pregnant before age 18.

• Individuals from fatherless homes are 279% more likely to carry a gun and to deal drugs.

• The proportion of single-parent households in a community is a better predictor of its violent crime and burglary rates than its poverty level.

• 75% of the 25 most-cited school shooters since Columbine were reared in broken homes, in which there was not just divorce and separation, but also infidelity, domestic violence, child abuse, substance abuse, and criminal behavior.

The Child Development Institute addresses the heroic responsibility of parenting:

[W]e need parents who, day in and day out, teach their children to behave and what is most important. . . . It takes patience and endurance to do the job of parenthood. But it is in those quiet moments at home that parents do their greatest work to contribute to humanity. (Bhatia, Malina, "The Biggest Contribution of Parenting to Humanity," March 7, 2016).

With these statistics, if a Christian is a good parent, perhaps having overcome some of these obstacles, he or she is a hero.

Second, one can be a hero by serving the brethren. Many verses encourage God's people to love others and give of themselves. Perhaps no other verse says it better than our Savior in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." These friends, the apostle John later clarifies, begin with our brothers and sisters in the church.

This subject is painful because sacrifice hurts! However, the Bible teaches that sacrifice is the very essence of love. We have learned that the grain or meal offering (Leviticus 2) pictures our obligation to sacrifice ourselves in service to our fellow man, thus fulfilling the Second Great Commandment, loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

If we desire to be a Christian hero, we must sacrifice for others, starting with our fellow brethren in Christ. We sacrifice for them by doing what we can, with our time, phone calls, cards, money, prayers, and other acts of service. Christianity is proactive, and if we can help in some way, we should. As the apostle James writes in James 4:17, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." God sets a lofty standard of service!

Jesus Christ set the highest example of brotherly love and altruistic sacrifice by denying Himself and living sinlessly His entire life, ultimately dying in our place on the cross. Christians are to imitate Him in everything, denying ourselves, crucifying our fleshly pulls, and living for Him and our brethren. As time goes on, the opportunities to serve our brethren will certainly increase. As James says, we should not pass those opportunities by. While we have the strength, the resources, and the opportunities, we should eagerly serve one another.

If you are a supportive Christian brother or sister, you are a hero.

Third, one can be a hero by setting a good example for others to follow. Jesus Christ tells His disciples that He is "the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). The apostle Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 1:26 that "not many mighty, not many noble are called." As the weak of the world, our primary function is to point to our Hero and witness by our behavior the path of obedience that leads to eternal life. If we can show others what it is like to walk that walk, how heroic is that?

In II Corinthians 10:4, Paul writes, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God." The word "mighty" here is dynatos, a Greek equivalent of gibbor, "powerful, strong, forceful," and it can denote the idea of valor. But Paul makes a critical distinction: Our fight is not physical but spiritual.

In an article on our need for heroes, Dr. Anne Bradley writes:

Remember David and Goliath: what makes a hero is not size, stature or supernatural powers. What matters is obedience, faith, and the pursuit of excellence within the work we are called to carry out.

Paul urges us in Romans 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Doing this, setting a good example for others to follow in this Christian way of life, we become heroic, going against the grain of this world, against our flesh, to live God's way. It is, of course, a cooperative effort with Christ, but we have been reconciled through His death to pursue holiness and produce the good works He prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:4-10).

While American heroes like Congressional Medal of Honor recipients receive medals and accolades, God's heroes of faith will receive crowns of righteousness and glory, not to mention eternal life in His Kingdom. Everyday Christian heroes have been blessed with the incredible opportunity to live godly lives, to serve, and to lead, not only on occasion, but every single day!

As we follow this sometimes arduous path of heroism, we must remember God's command to Joshua as Israel stood on the doorstep of the Promised Land: "So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you" (Deuteronomy 31:6, NLT).

We must also bear in mind that heroes never give up. As Proverbs 24:16 says, "For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again . . .." American author Rick Riordan sums this mentality up nicely: "Being a hero doesn't mean that you're invincible. It just means that you're brave enough to stand up and do what is needed."

This kind of heroism is our calling. With Christ showing the way, if we work to become good parents, serve our fellow workers in Christ and others, and set a good example of strong and faithful obedience, sacrifice, and endurance, we, too, will be extravagantly rewarded as Christian heroes!