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A Personal Devotional by Debbie Hall
All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Ronald Reagan
It seems like every Presidential race we are faced with choosing between two Ivy League graduates whose lives have been lived very differently than our own. Since the death of former President Reagan, I have been reading about and thinking about what a remarkable man he was. I have come to believe the lessons we can learn from his life are worth underscoring here.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Although his dad was an alcoholic who moved the family around often, Ronald Reagan’s mother was a woman of faith, prayer, and compassion. She didn’t just take young Ronald to church; she modeled the Christian life and taught him biblical truth. The saying “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” was never truer than the impact Nelle Reagan had on her son. An annotation in her Bible read, “You can be too big for God to use, but you cannot be too small.”
Awe at God’s creation: In one of the many rented houses Reagan lived in as a child, he found an amazing discovery in the attic. In enclosed glass he found a collection of bird’s eggs and butterflies. As the youngster looked at the intricacies of the discovery, he was overtaken by God’s creative genius. Later he would say this: the experience “left me with a reverence for the handiwork of God that never left me.” Later in life friends would say that sometimes they would be riding horses with Reagan, and as they came upon a sunset or some beautiful mountain view, Reagan would shout, “glory to God!”
The power of reading good books. Ronald Reagan was an avid reader from the time of his childhood on. His favorite book was the Bible, and he would often use its content to illustrate his speeches. He was also well versed in the Declaration of Independence and the writings of America’s founders. He knew early Americans took their responsibility to be God’s shining “city on a hill” seriously. At 11 years of age he was profoundly influenced by a Christian novel, Harold Bell Wright’s “The Printer of Udell.” In the 70’s he wrote a letter to the author’s daughter in law, saying: “after reading it and thinking about it for a few days, I went to my mother and told her I wanted to declare my faith and be baptized.”
Faith in Jesus Christ. On July 21, 1922, at the First Christian Church of Dixon, Illinois, Ronald Wilson Reagan became a Christian and was baptized. At his public high school commencement Ronald Reagan spoke, and quoted John 10:10, where Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” Even in Hollywood he was not ashamed of Jesus and had an article published in a trade magazine entitled, “my faith.” It is impossible to understand his basic belief in good triumphing over evil apart from his Biblical faith. To Reagan life was like one big movie, with God as the director/producer and humans as the players. Reagan believed both that God liked happy endings and that He had the power to bring about a happy ending. As President he often referred to the book of Revelation, not with a curiosity over its details, but as sure proof that God was in control.
Optimism: President Reagan often told a story of a psychiatrist miffed by the optimism of a little boy. Trying to see if anything would discourage the boy, the psychiatrist brought the boy into a room filled from top to bottom with horse manure. “Yippee,” the boy yelled, and scurried to the top of the heap of dung and began digging. “What are you doing?” cried out the Psychiatrist. The boy said, “With all the manure in this room, there must be a pony in here somewhere!” The spirit of that boy was always visible in the optimism of Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Moral Clarity and Convictions: Reagan was a man of values: he knew what he believed and fought for it. When an advisor tried to get him to dump a reference to abortion because he had already been vocal on it, Reagan just smiled and said, “Now, Jim, this is just one of those things I feel strongly about.” Reagan knew Soviet suppression of free speech and murder of countless political and religious prisoners could only be described by one word: evil. In his journal he wrote: “my theory about the cold war is that we win and they lose.” The State Department and the National Security Council fought to keep the famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” out of his speech in Berlin. In the limousine on the way to deliver it, President Reagan looked at his deputy chief of staff and smiled, saying “the boys at State are going to kill me, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Initiative: Reagan approached the football coach at Eureka College and asked for a scholarship and got one. After college Reagan went to a radio station and asked for a job as a broadcaster and got it. When he moved to Hollywood he literally convinced his employer that not only should they do a movie about Knute Rockne but that he was the guy to play the part.
Lowering taxes is a good thing: Reagan at one time had 91% of his income taken by the tax man. In addressing the nation in 1981 he said, “There were always those who told us that taxes couldn’t be cut until spending was reduced. Well, you know, we can lecture our children about extravagance until we run out of voice and breath. Or we can cure their extravagance by simply reducing their allowance.” When pushed by moderate republicans to accept a tax increase, Reagan reminded advisors that he had promised when running for the presidency that he wouldn’t raise taxes, and then he leaned over and said, “never mention a tax increase in my presence again.” In another speech in 1985, Reagan said, “America was born in the midst of a great revolution sparked by oppressive taxation. There was something about the American character- open, hard-working and honest- that rebelled at the very thought of taxes that were not only heavy but unfair.”
Statesmanship: Reagan wanted to go fight in World War II but was unable to because of poor eyesight. Instead he made 400 training and morale movies as part of the First Motion Picture Unit. At the 40th Anniversary of D Day, the French government wanted to give him the Croix de Guerre. Reagan sent his advisors to tell them he couldn’t possibly accept it- “that’s for bravery- all I ever did was fly a desk…I couldn’t possibly accept the Croix de Guerre.” In response the French said they would instead give him the Legion d’ honneur, for Statesmanship. Reagan’s response- “I can play that role.”
Do unto others as you’d have done unto you. In 1976 when Reagan was running for the Presidential nomination, he was giving a speech in North Carolina. Before the speech he was told “some blind kids here want to have you say hello.” Reagan said he would be honored to meet them, but only after photographers had gone. He was not going to make his meeting with them a photo op. When he met them, Ronald Reagan bent down, close to the kids, to talk with them. And then he answered their questions. Then he said, “Now I have a question for you: would you like to touch my face so you can get a better understanding of how I look?”
A great American: So much more could be said: He saved at least 77 people from drowning when he was a lifeguard. He helped his brother through college, and sent checks from his first job back home to his parents. When he made it big, he brought his parents to California and gave them jobs answering his fan mail. When he was concerned that his mom was developing Alzheimer’s and might get lost on the way back from helping in a sanitarium, he drove the entire route giving pictures of her and contact information to those who might see her. By all accounts his first wife had left him, and yet he refused to ever publicly criticize her. He could have been a better father, but even his children now acknowledge that he was the best father he knew how to be. He didn’t hold grudges the way some politicians do. His sense of humor was legendary, and he was known to playfully throw snowballs at White House Staffers.
Perhaps the best way to sum up: Ronald Reagan was not only larger than life, Ronald Reagan lived life large!
Rev. Danny Campbell
Pastor, Wayne Hills Baptist Church