The Bowerman Blague: Happiness Is...

Monday, November 30, 2009

Happiness Is...

I think nothing in life has given me more insight into the nature and character of our Heavenly Father as being a father myself.

Many people have taught this in various ways over the years, but this may be the first time I have put it into my own words: my greatest happiness in life comes from seeing my family happy. It's not about my money, cars, houses, prestige, degrees, callings, honors, retirement, or even health or legacies; it's about a righteous posterity, seeing the Lord pour out blessings on them as they strive to keep the commandments. Can you see the boy-ish happiness in Chris' face in this photo as he and his beautiful bride exited the Holy Temple? You should have seen it in mine.

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My Favorite Sayings

You can't fix stupid. Even with duck tape.-Anon.
I'm an inch taller than you and my PowerPoint slides are in the Louvre. -Topper, Dilbert comic strip
Scientists study the world as it is. Engineers create the world that never has been.--Theodore von Karman
If ye love wealth more better liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. --Samuel Adams
We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. --Abraham Lincoln
No other success can compensate for failure in the home. -- David O. McKay
We demand the right to contradict ourselves! --Students rioting in Paris, 1968
1) Unpredictability is a strong deterrent. 2) We favor the visible, the embedded, the personal, the narrated, and the tangible; we scorn the abstract. 3) Economics is a narrative discipline, and explanations are easy to fit retrospectively. 4) Good, enlightened (and "friendly") advice and elequent sermons do not register for more than a few moments when they go against our wiring.--Nassim Nicholas Taleb
They can't stop you...from learning.
There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.-James Madison
The problem with wrongdoing is not solved by multiplication. --Rabbi Mark Miller
Don't make it complicated. At my age I can't deal with complicated. Judge Judy
Tend well thy garden; it soon thou shalt be.
If you're going to skate on thin ice, skate fast
Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy. --Ron Paul
Old saying: "A leopard can't change its spots." San Quentin's Warden Duffy: "I don't work with leopards, I work with men, and men change every day."
"If we don't try, we don't do; if we don't do, why are we here?" -- from the play Shenendoah
Pioneer slogan: "Fix it up; wear it out; make it do, or do without."
It's not that life is so short, it's just that we are dead for so long...
Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.
Focus on everything.
Our task is to ... ponder signs without becoming paranoid, to be aware without frantically matching current events and expectations.... Neal A. Maxwell
If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear. D&C 38:30
Don't confuse me with the facts.
When half the people get the idea they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because the government is going to take away what they earned anyway, a nation is in trouble. -- Paraphrasing Dr. Adrian Rogers
I'm not dead yet! -- from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Remember: You are unique, just like everyone else.
I love you. And this time I mean it.
Common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18. --Einstein
The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than the study of behavior will change behavior. -- Boyd K. Packer
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Some things can be beyond reason...not illogical, not unreasonable; rather, totally logical, totally reasonable, but even more sure, and sometimes, oftentimes, known to be true even before logic and reason have their say. Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to enlighten man's mind.
Knowledge is Power
Nitroglycerin...briefcase...hurry
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. –John Adams
The way the government views the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. –Ronald Reagan
The second mouse gets the cheese
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil
It is better to have none than to have some; but if you must have some, it is better to have a little than to have a lot (President Reagan, on nuclear bombs)
Facts are persistent things; they do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.
The glory of God is intelligence.
Manage things; lead people.
Sane people don't act irrationally; we just haven't discovered their motivation.
Hope is not a strategy
Common sense may be common, but it's not universal!

Bowerman Family Mission Statement

Our family mission is to help each other and our extended family achieve exaltation in the celestial kingdom. We believe this is possible only by exercising our faith in the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We show our faith in Him by being obedient to the commandments of the gospel. Examples of gospel principles that help us in our resolve to follow the Savior:

· Studying the scriptures daily, we learn the teachings of the Savior and what we must do to gain eternal life.

· Praying as a family and in private each day opens the channels of communication with Heaven, and helps us be receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

· Knowing that clean hands and a pure heart are the foundation to personal revelation, repentance must be continually practiced as we strive to overcome the natural man and become like our Father in Heaven.

· Paying tithes and offerings is an act of faith and charity that places God and His purposes above any earthly pleasure money could buy.

· Sharing the gospel through words and example with others demonstrates our understanding that we are all children of God and everyone deserves the opportunity to receive the same blessings we enjoy.

· Holding Family Home Evening each week helps build a safe harbor from the world, offering respite to our family from the storms of life.

· Sustaining and following the counsel of priesthood leaders shows our understanding that the Lord has once again delegated authority to righteous men to act in His name, and our willingness to heed His counsel.

· Marrying only in the House of the Lord, by the priesthood authority of one holding the sealing power, binds us together in a way that transcends this life and creates eternal family units.

· Researching our family tree and performing saving ordinances vicariously for our ancestors in holy temples gives them the opportunity to accept the gospel and be linked in an unbroken chain leading from father Adam to the newest child in our family.

· Accepting and doing our best to magnify callings accomplishes the work of the Lord's church and yet blesses us and sanctifies us in a way that far exceeds any amount of effort we expend.

· Regularly renewing our covenants by partaking of the sacramental emblems reminds us of the Savior and the Atonement He accomplished for us as individuals, for the Bowerman family, and for all who trust in Him.

The Bowerman Blague

Monday, November 30, 2009

Happiness Is...

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