True Principles Applied Bring Success & Happiness

I first listened to this devotional talk at Ricks College in 1991. It is a perennial favorite of mine.

"True Principles Applied Bring Success & Happiness", 5 Mar 1991, Ed J. Pinegar, Former President of the MTC
Download the MP3, BYUI Link to MP3

He talks here about how gratitude is the key to desire.

He talks about how faith is a principle of belief, action and power.

Faith is the first, great governing principle of this earth life. Faith is the power by which it was created. Faith is the moving cause of all action. Faith has three degrees, that of belief, that of action and that of power. The prophet Joseph Smith taught back in the school of the prophets in 1832 (First Lecture on Faith). 

From his obituary 

Ed Jolley Pinegar peacefully passed away on August 18, 2020 with his sweetheart, Pat, by his side.  He was born in Provo, Utah on February 12, 1935 to James Emery Pinegar and Effie Jolley Pinegar.  Ed will be remembered as a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and as a teacher, speaker, author, dentist, and friend.  His life was filled with service - praising, inspiring, and encouraging others (PIE) with humor and love.

Ed was raised in Edgemont, Spanish Fork and Provo, Utah.  He graduated from BYU Elementary Training School and BY High School.  He excelled in athletics playing football, basketball, baseball, and tennis.  He attended BYU on a tennis and basketball scholarship playing for the legendary Coach Stan Watts.  In 1956, he graduated from BYU with a degree in chemistry and mathematics.  He married his college sweetheart, Patricia Peterson, March 28, 1956 in the Salt Lake Temple.  They recently celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary.

Ed attended dental school at the University of Southern California and graduated in 1961.  While attending dental school, he taught early morning seminary to high school students.  He began his dental practice in Provo, Utah.  After one year, he was asked to put his practice aside and serve as a Captain in the United States Army between 1962 and 1964.  Upon returning to Provo to restart his dental practice, he again taught early morning seminary for 3 years and then taught the Book of Mormon, Gospel Principles and Practices, and other religion classes part-time at BYU for 19 years.  He retired in 2000 from the faculty at the Orem Institute of Religion at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Ed served in many capacities as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He served as Bishop (twice) and Stake President.  He also served with Pat as President of the England London South Mission (1985-88), President of the Provo Missionary Training Center (1988-90), full-time missionaries to the church historical sites in the Rochester New York Mission, and as President and Matron of the Manti Temple (2009-12).  His last calling was as a greeter in the Suncrest 10th ward.  He was the author of over 60 books and audio recordings of which many were on missionary work.  

The joy of Ed’s life was his family.  He loved his sweetheart, Pat, an angel wife and mother.  They are the parents of eight children – Karie Bushnell (Bruce), Steve Pinegar, Kelly Hagemeyer (Dale), Kristi Gubler (Ross), Brett Pinegar (Susan), Cory Pinegar (who preceded him in death in 1986), Traci Magleby (Hans), and Tricia Skousen (Jeff).  He has 38 grandchildren, 30 great grandchildren, and 5 on the way. 

My soul wells up...

Changed for Good

I am feeling so grateful for so many people in my life. I have been changed towards Good. Towards God.

I have also  been changed forever. Thanks for both.

https://youtu.be/uzrGFQysfYU

Something in the Way She Moves

There are a couple of James Taylor songs that sum up how I feel about my wife and her soul saving influence in my life. I am so grateful for her love, patience and example of unwearied diligence. "She has the power to go where no one else can find me and to silently remind me of the happiness and the good times that I know"


Something In The Way She Moves
Something in the way she moves, or looks my way, or calls my name
that seems to leave this troubled world behind.
And if I'm feeling down and blue or troubled by some foolish game,
she always seems to make me change my mind..

And I feel fine anytime she's around me now, she's around me now almost about all the time.
And if I'm well you can tell she's been with me now.
She's been with me now quite a long, long time and I feel fine.

Every now and then the things I lean on lose their meaning
and I find myself careening in places where I should not let me go.
She has the power to go where no one else can find me and to silently remind me
of the happiness and the good times that I know, and then I just got to go then.

It isn't what she's got to say but how she thinks and where she's been.
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound.
I like to hear them best that way, it doesn't much matter what they mean.
she says them mostly just to calm me down

And I feel fine anytime she's around me now, she's around me now almost about all the time.
And if I'm well you can tell she's been with me now.
She's been with me now quite a long, long time and I feel fine.



Mean Old Man
On my own
How could I have known?
Imagine my surprise
Just a fool
From a tree full of fools
Who can't believe his eyes
Imagine my surprise

I was a mean old man
I was an ornery cuss
I was a dismal dan
I made an awful fuss
Ever since my life began
Man, it was ever thus
I was a nasty tyke who was hard to like

I had to misbehave
I did things in reverse
Refused to wash or shave
I was horrid to my nurse
I got back what I gave
Which only made me worse
I had to have my way
Which was bleak and gray, oh dear

Living in here
One hundred years of rain
Such a drag
This riches to rags
With just myself to blame
A dirty low-down shame

Silly me
Silly old me
Somewhere outside my mind
Clever you
Walking me through
Willing to lead the blind
Just in the nick of time

Who gets a second chance?
Who gets to have some fun?
Who gets to learn to dance
Before his race is run?
Who gets to she'd his skin?
Who comes up born again?
Who was a mean old man
'til you turned him into a golden retriever
Puppy dog
Who's a good boy?
-

Learning to Hope

Steph and I met Mariama Kallon on our trip to Utah.  She is from Sierra Leone.  She told an incredible story from her life in Learning to Hope in the New Era of Nov 2006 pdf. 

It was a great reminder of how blessed I am with the security and clothes and home and food I have readily available to me.

The Hand of God Reaching Out

I remember hearing this talk by Elder Eyring now over three years ago.  Perhaps someday I will be as good about recording the hand of the Lord in my life.

When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.

He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”

I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.

The years have gone by. My boys are grown men. And now and then one of them will surprise me by saying, “Dad, I was reading in my copy of the journal about when …” and then he will tell me about how reading of what happened long ago helped him notice something God had done in his day.

My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done. You remember that song we sometimes sing: “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done." (Henry B. Eyring, "O Remember, Remember", Ensign, Nov. 2007, 66–69, YouTube)  

Lucky In Love

I am so lucky to have my sweet wife.  She is so patient and persistent and oh so fun to be with.

Do you hear me,

I'm talking to you

Across the water across the deep blue ocean

Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

Boy I hear you in my dreams

I feel your whisper across the sea

I keep you with me in my heart

You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Lucky to have been where I have been

Lucky to be coming home again

Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes

Waiting for a love like this

Every time we say goodbye

I wish we had one more kiss

I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Lucky to have been where I have been

Lucky to be coming home again

Lucky we're in love every way

Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed

Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea

To an island where we'll meet

You'll hear the music fill the air

I'll put a flower in your hair

Though the breezes through trees

Move so pretty you're all I see

As the world keeps spinning round

You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Lucky to have been where I have been

Lucky to be coming home again

I'm lucky we're in love every way

Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed

Lucky to be coming home someday

Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Ooooh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

Say Nothing but Repentance

Papa D just had a great post, Repentance As a Liberating Movement Toward the Ideal.  He concisely, states one of the things I love best about Mormonism.  The Lord wants all heights and depths for us, every joy to its fullest.  He denies us nothing.

I am so grateful that the Lord takes the burden of that I cannot handle.  He frees me to look at myself with new eyes.  To see where I am in error.  To see where I am not yet fully developed.  His grace frees me to progress.  He liberates me so I can grow and change and flourish.

This is why the Lord said, "Say nothing but repentance unto this generation; keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my commandments, and you shall be blessed." D&C 6:9

Blessed By Adversity

It is hard to feel sorry for myself when I hear a story like Gary Ceran.

Early in the morning of one Christmas Eve, Gary Ceran’s life was drastically and forever altered. On this day, a terrible traffic accident took the lives of his wife and two of his children. Who was the at-fault driver of the other vehicle? What would your reaction be toward this person? How would you deal with this tragedy on a personal level?

From Conversations on the Mormon Channel. Download the MP3 here.

Half of something

My wife bought me the Sunshine on Leith album by The Proclaimers for me recently. I love it! I remember around five years ago, I came home. Stephanie was gone for some reason. I put this cassette in and danced to it with the kids for at least an hour. It was one of those moments that you don't forget. How happy I was to be with my kids and the joy of dance and music.

On the way to work I was listening again. One line from the "Then I Met You" track is,

Thought that I was whole instead of being half of something

My dear wife is so strong, so persistent. She works hard and then keeps on giving. She is passionate. One recent example is the fortieth wedding anniversary she helped to organize for her parents. She gave it her all. I tell you what, I am so glad to have all of her back again. Her parents are worth it. It was only a limited time. I did miss her.

I think of this scripture when I think of my sweetheart,

...I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to fellowship, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen. D&C 88:133

I am so grateful to have her. She is my better half. With her I am complete. As we continue to keep our covenants with God, we will become whole. We will fill the measure of our creation. Having her at my side gives me added confidence that I will continue in the path of God. She is a gift.

The Lord does not expect that we do what we cannot achieve. The command to become perfect, as He is, encourages us to achieve the best of ourselves, to discover and develop the talents and attributes with which we are blessed by a loving Eternal Father, who invites us to realize our potential as children of God. He knows us; He knows of our capacities and our limitations. The invitation and challenge to become perfect, to achieve eternal life is for all mankind.
Immediately after teaching that “it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength,” King Benjamin indicated that “it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize." God will not require more than the best we can give because that would not be just, but neither can He accept less than that because that would not be just either. Therefore, let us always give the best we can in the service of God and our fellowmen. Let us serve in our families and in our callings in the Church in the best manner possible. Let us do the best we can and each day be a little better. (Jorge F. Zeballos, “Attempting the Impossible,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 33–34, [Emphasis is mine])

I am grateful to have such a devoted, loving and kind wife as my partner in creating heaven on earth.

"Thank you, thank you for my life"

I love, love Joe Vs the Volcano. I watched it with a bunch of friends that were in "South Pacific" with me my senior year in high school.



"Dear God, whose name I do not know. Thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG. Thank you, thank you for my life."

Another quote I like is, "My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement." Patricia Graynamore

Jesus has cleaned up a lot of messes after me

In the last 18 hours one of my kids has had some bowel issues. Not fun to clean up. Something occurred to me during the first episode. Jesus has cleaned up a lot of messes after me. Even when I did my best to help, I just spread the mess around.

It was much easier to deal with the yuck with this in mind.

Pay It Forward

Because of the miracle of Clean Films I watched Pay It Forward. When looking up a reference to the film, I noticed a foundation developed by the author of the book "to bring the message from her novel to classrooms across the country"

This movie came to my mind as I listened to Mosiah chapter 4 this morning. It was in this chapter that I first came to learn of the principle of pay it forward. When Jesus rescues me from the consequences of my sin he does not ask that I pay it back. He asks me to pay it forward.

Gordon B Hinckley Remembered by the Press

I heard this as I drove into work on NPR. Positive reflections on Gordon B. Hinckley. You can listen to it on the site.

Mormon Leader Gordon B. Hinckley Dies at 97 by Howard Berkes

It was Hinckley's "candor," [Mike] Wallace told NPR, "his willingness to entertain any question, no matter how difficult or, perhaps embarrassing," that charmed Wallace.
"He was just absolutely open with me," Wallace said. "It became quite clear that there was a great deal in the Mormon religion that I genuinely admired."