KeepDadAlive-PassionatelySmilingTortoiseMusings: Tributes to President Reagan and Craig Oakford

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Tributes to President Reagan and Craig Oakford

It's President Reagan's 100th birthday today, so I'd like to share a tribute to him written by Craig Oakford.

http://oakford.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/happy-birthday-president-reagan-2/

Craig was my first roommate in BYU's Deseret Towers after we both came home from our missions. Today he lives in Simi Valley, California, home to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. I've been once in my life, and if you ever get out that way, you should stop in for a few hours to visit. President Reagan was a great man and a great president. As time passes, I appreciate him more.

The picture is of Craig and his wife Wendy at the wedding of their daughter Stacy. Some of you have heard a few of my stories from our year as roommates. His persistence in courting Wendy was one of them. Another was the "how many baptisms did you have on your mission story -- do you really want to know -- minus one." He went to the French mission that also included Belgium. Funny we never met before we did, since our missions were twenty miles and an international body of water apart, and he graduated from "Rydell High" the year after I did ... but I never knew him there, and I thought I knew everyone who was Mormon, after all when there are only 30 of you and 3,200 of everyone else, you stick together!

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Some Quotes I Like

"Life isn't a dress rehearsal. It is to be lived well in whatever circumstances we find ourselves." - Marvin J. Ashton (see 16 Apr 2010 entry)

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible" - Walt Disney (see 22 Apr 2010 entry)

" .. . once there has been genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don't give up when the pressure mounts" - Jeffrey R. Holland quoted in the Ensign magazine, April 2010, page 24, quoting a 1999 BYU devotional address. (see 24 Apr 2010 entry)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world" - Gandhi (see 6 May 2010 and 9 Sept 2010 entries)

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do" - John Wooden (see 5 Jun 2010 entry)

the next several are all by Gordon B. Hinckley . . .

"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work."

"Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we'll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain."

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

"Life is to be enjoyed, not endured"

(My comment to that is how refreshing is it to know that enduring to the end really means being cheerfully faithful to the end. Or if you prefer, it means being . . . a passionately smiling tortoise . . .)

-- Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (see 23 Jun 2010 entry)

" ... But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ." -- Moroni 7:47-48 (see 12 Jul 2010 entry)

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." -- Abraham Lincoln (see 21 Jul 2010 entry)

"What seek ye first? What do you cherish as the dominant, the uppermost thought in your mind? What this is will largely determine your destiny. . . . You may win in this world almost anything for which you strive. If you work for wealth, you can get it, but before you make it an end in itself, take a look at those men who have sacrificed all to the accomplishment of this purpose, at those who have desired wealth for the sake of wealth itself. Gold does not corrupt man; it is in the motive of acquiring that gold that corruption occurs."

--- David O. McKay, 9th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (Treasures of Life [1962], 174–75)." (see 27 Aug 2010 entry)

"Unchastity and infidelity bring serious consequences such as the rippling, even haunting effects of illegitimacy and fatherlessness, along with disease and the shredding of families. So many marriages hang by a thread or have already snapped. . . .

"Therefore, the keeping of the seventh commandment is such a vital shield! (see Exodus 20:14). By our lowering or losing that shield, the much-needed blessings of heaven are lost. No person or nation can prosper for long without those blessings” (italics added by me)

-- Neal A. Maxwell (in LDS General Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 96; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 78). (see 27 Aug 2010 entry)

"It is, after all, not so much what we know but what we are willing to share that makes the difference."

-- Barbara W. Winder (in her keynote address of the 1988 BYU Campus Education Week). (see link in 19 Sept 2010 entry)

"When you find yourself getting into a routine with your prayers, step back and think. Meditate for awhile on the things for which you really are grateful"

-- Joseph B. Wirthlin, "Improving Our Prayers," in Brigham Young University 2002-2003 Speeches [2003], 160. (see 22 Nov 2010 entry in my "I Believe" blog)

"Do your duty; that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest"

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in "The Legend Beautiful", and oft-quoted by Thomas S. Monson, 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (see 23 Nov 2010 entry)

"If we don't change direction, we will arrive at where we are going"

-- Richard L. Evans, in the April 1970 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (see 29 Nov 2010 entry)

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed."

---Napoleon Hill (see 4 Jan 2011 entry)

KeepDadAlive-PassionatelySmilingTortoiseMusings

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Tributes to President Reagan and Craig Oakford

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KeepDadAlive-PassionatelySmilingTortoiseMusings

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Tributes to President Reagan and Craig Oakford

No comments:

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Followers

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About Me

Twitter

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Video Clips I Really Like

Some Quotes I Like