True Soldier Stories
"Courage is the ability to move;
when all around you are frozen in fear
and no one would blame you if you did nothing at all."
Capt. Click. Phx. PD
My Name is J.R. Clark
Taken from the book Think
About it... for your reading convenience
As I see it, we are all God’s children, living
in a world full of experiences and challenges. No one can escape them or run
away. How you choose to deal with your problems is up to you.
How you respond to each and every situation is your choice.
You are responsible for your actions.
In my youth, I grew up going my own way, proud, hard and strong. I thought no
matter how sharp-tongued I was, it made no difference at all. Some of the time I
did get my point across, but it was costly. So as a tough guy, I had to work
harder and more effectively. I did get a whole new outlook on life from the
place known as the “School of Hard Knocks.” As I continued to grow, hardness
began to be built right into me.
As a soldier, I could tell you how it is to watch a man dissolve in front of
your eyes in a sheer second. I could also tell you what it’s like to watch a man
die by falling from a second story railing. I have even seen a man burn from
phosphorous and watched as his skin melted away. I have watched human beings
shoot drugs, overdose and then die from them. I have seen human beings be maimed
beyond belief. I have been so scared in different times of my life of being
enacted upon by danger, that I actually thought I would die. I’ve listened to my
heart physically pound against my chest from fear and thought it would explode.
Being a veteran of the Vietnam War,
I came to the conclusion that a tough guy is not at all how tough you are,
but how tough you allow yourself to be
at the right moment.
I returned from the war, only to discover that I was not done experiencing some
of those heart
pounding fearful times. Sometimes they occurred in my life here as they do
yours. If you are smart,
you won’t go through troubled times alone. Learn to invite your Heavenly Father
in. He can not only
ease the pain, but also can actually favor the situation for you. Later in life,
I learned how to analyze
the whole picture instead of just the current position I was facing. My peers
told me that the tough-guy is the one that is the sharpest and most of the time
a leader. Unfortunately, the so called tough guy doesn’t always lead or make
decisions in the way that our Heavenly Father would.
When I started going back to church, I regained an inner happiness that I didn’t
realize my soul had been thirsting for. I gained an inner peace with my Heavenly
Father. All the things I thought that were so very important in my life, are
someone else’s misfortune now. Living a regular LDS life, I am really gaining
more insight as to how to channel being a tough guy into teaching others the
things they need to know. Like how not to take the direction that is usually
chosen by the tough-guy.
I hope you take the time to get to know yourself and take inventory of your
life. You will see exactly where I am coming from. I watched my large home,
yacht, and country club property and savings dissolve, bit by bit, piece by
piece. One of the things that I choose to tell you is not only did I lose most
of my worldly goods but I also lost my profession of twenty years. After it was
all over and the dust settled, I realized I finally found my way back to the
future and to the things that are truly important. I began living the basics of
the gospel and found my total happiness.
Happiness is a warm soft glow
just an uplifting heart beat away from you.
In choosing to find it, you have to rebuild. Reuse your great gifts given to
you by your
Heavenly Father. Apply them in a better, more useful direction. As you do, you
will not only obtain happiness for yourself, but also for those around you. Use
your ability to see how you can shape the outcome for good. That way, the word
tough can mean not having to use toughness.
Your Heavenly Father needs you in these last days to be strong, to be a good
example to others and
to make right choices, so put on your armor. It is all right to still be a
‘tough guy’ but you will be so
much more effective and efficient when you are humble and choose to have the
Spirit with you. A
tough person is one who helps instead of bullies. A tough person is one who
kneels down to a child,
one who hugs the needy, one who helps the meek and mild. A tough person is one
who kneels down
with his family in prayer, praying for others and for his own forgiveness when
needed. Thanks to the
help of my Heavenly Father, I have been shaped and reshaped and molded into a
brand new me: Brother Tough Guy.
One that I now respect and always deep
down inside, wanted to be.
J.R. Clark
If you are or were a police officer,
soldier, fireman
or wife, mother, father of such or some other branch of emergency
personnel
and would like to share an unusual testimony building experience with
others,
please contact us for details at
Samuel@ldscops.com
or use the link on the front page of this site at
www.LDSCOPS.com
Thank you and God bless,