PB Devotional

Every year a specific Ronald Reagan speech is played at our church. I cry every time I hear it because it’s ranked on my list of my favorite military inspiration speeches. Truth spoken has the ability to turn hearts in a positive or negative way. We celebrate “Women Who Inspire” because we truly believe that every human inspires another. The inspiration could be positive or negative but either way inspiration is happening. Speeches have a way of participating in this process.

The Revolutionary War
- President George Washington

The War of 1812
- President James Madison

Mexican American War
- President James Polk

Civil War
- President Abraham Lincoln

The Spanish-American War
- President Williams McKinley

World War 1
- President Woodrow Wilson

World War 2
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- President Harry S. Truman

The Vietnam War
- President Dwight Eisenhower
- President John F. Kennedy
- President Lyndon B. Johnson
- President Richard Nixon

The Persian Gulf War (Desert Storm)
- President George Bush Sr.

The Iraq War
- President George Bush Jr.
- President Barack Obama

Before every war there’s a speech. Every war time President listed here gave a speech. Some are more memorable than others but it happened. These wars are a compilation of millions of lost lives. Some of these presidents were the start and finish of the wars. But many started the war, others inherited the war and a few had the privilege to end the wars. They all had their part to play and the American solider was their solution.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and one of the most influential figures of the Cold War. The most interesting thing about the Cold War was just that; it was cold. It was a time of conflict, not a war time period. Ronald Reagan was not a “war time” president. The Cold War was called cold because the featured heavyweights, the Soviet Union and the United States, were  "at peace." But they engaged in circling each other, jabbing at each other, testing each others' supposed weaknesses. It was a “war of words” if you will. The Cold War lasted from 1947 to 1991, a period of about 45 years.

How many of you are in the mist of your own “Cold War”? Actual weapons have never been drawn but words and antics are flying left and right. There are casualties based on  the belief of who is wrong or right and it has lasted for years. Are you fighting a “war of words”?

“We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.”
- Ronald Reagan

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
- Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan had a lot of great words. His words caused the Berlin Wall to come down.

As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. . . .General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
 Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!