Happiness

 

• Places we've lived
  
• Things we've seen
  
• Our history with Perdido
  
• The Lord's plan…does he use us as instruments of His divine will?
  

 

Our family has talked about happiness today. You've probably noticed that we all have had a different take on this topic; we each have addressed various facets of the same phenomenon. The phenomenon of real and lasting happiness may seem somewhat slippery and hard to put labels on. Any of you that have taken a philosophy course know that many of the so-called great philosophers had their disparate opinions on the place of happiness within the mileau of the human experience. To me it seems happiness and its twin "misery" are inextricably entwined! A brief sampling of aphorisms on the topic of happiness illustrates: LISTEN CAREFULLY!!

 

Happiness is good health and a bad memory. (Ingrid Bergman)

 

All who would win joy, must share it; happiness was born a twin. (Lord Byron)

 

Expect everything, and anything seems nothing. Expect nothing, and anything seems everything. (Samuel Hazo)

 

If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive. (Elbert Hubbard)

 

Life is short. Live it up. (Nikita Khrushchev)

 

We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified. (Aesop)

 

Joy is not in things, it is in us. (Jess Lair)

 

Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember. (Oscar LeVant)

 

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you will cease to be so. (John Stuart Mill)

 

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

 

Live each day as if it were the last day of your life, because so far, it is. (Unknown)

 

Misery is optional. (S. Gilmary Beagle)

 

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do. (Joe Walsh)

 

 

A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted. (George Santayana )

Let me ask a few rhetorical questions:

 

• How many of you have looked in the mirror recently?
  
• A real hard look?
  
• For the ladies: Not one to straighten your hair up or apply your make up
  
• For the guys: Not one to check out how devilishly handsome you are or one involved with a check of where else hair is growing now!
  
• I mean a gaze with these questions in mind:
  
  • Who am I?
    
  • Why am I here?
    
  • Where am I going after this life is over?
    
  • What is my purpose here on earth?
    
  • I'm accelerating towards some sort of destiny….what is it?
    
  • I've reflected on who and what you and I are and how and why you and I are entitled to happiness.
    
• Have you considered that among all of the creations of the Supreme ruler of this universe and He who is Lord over this and infinite worlds, you represent his primary concern AND His crowning achievement?
  
• Do you realize that He has allowed His only begotten Son to condescend to live on this very planet just over 2000 years ago to ensure your everlasting happiness?
  
• Have you paused to acknowledge that among all of the millions upon millions of God's children there is no other individual precisely like you?
  
• We like to think we're unique amongst ourselves and we are, but as humans with limited capacity for appreciating variability even we can see some patterns reoccurring!
  

 

While travelling recently for the Air Force I was held by the Salt Lake Airport Security for approximately 30 minutes because someone has been using the name "Paul Laws" for less than desirable purposes! I was informed my name is on a "watch list" and security procdure may be a regular occurrence for the rest of my life! I will have to certify I am indeed the "good and upright" Paul Laws vs. the other one who is out there using "my" name for foul purposes!

 

Fortunately, our father above has numbered all of His creations and you can bet "He who notes the fall of a sparrow" is intimately concerned with all of the days and events of our individual probations.

 

Inasmuch as we are allotted a finite amount of time here on the planet I feel it behooves us all to ascertain as soon as possible what course will reconcile us to Him!

 

The "pursuit of happiness" is termed an "inalienable right" within the very framework of our republic, the Declaration of Independence. As a people we value the idea of personal liberties and freedom so much we actively promulgate these principles worldwide, even at the peril of lives!

 

Joseph Smith said:

 

Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. . . .

. . . . [A]s God has designed our happiness—and the happiness of all His creatures, he never has—He never will institute an ordinance or give a commandment to His people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which He has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his law and ordinances. (An essay recorded in the Journal History [HC5:134-35] Aug. 27, 1842) TPJS:255-56; DGSM:27

 

This brings me back to an earlier point; The Father of us all; the omniscient, omnipotent controller of all things HAS A PLAN for our HAPPINESS!

 

Lorenzo Snow once taught:

There is nothing the Latter-day Saints can imagine that would afford them happiness that God has not unfolded to us. He has prepared everything for the Latter-day Saints that they could possibly wish or imagine in order to effect their complete happiness throughout the vast eternities. (Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, p. 63) DGSM:28

 

Lehi, the ancient Prophet knew this truth when he taught his sons:

 

Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. 2Ne.2:25

 

Adam himself got this revelation early on as is recorded in Moses 5:10-11:

 

And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.

 

And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

 

 

George Q. Cannon taught:

 

It is not given to men and women on the earth to be entirely satisfied, if they seek for satisfaction and happiness in worldly things. There is only one way in which perfect happiness can be obtained, and that is by having the Spirit of God. (Gospel Truth, 2:317-18) TLDP:319

 

 

This is so true! I recall a small poem I first heard as a missionary too many years ago:

 

As a rule

Man's a fool

When it's hot

He wants it cool

When it's cool

He wants it hot

Always wanting what its' not!

 

Personal Story "Red Truck, Blue Truck, Black Truck, VAN"

 

Life is a challenge and a struggle mingled with happiness and joy. Some of you have heard my witticism on the subject: "Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug!"

 

On Friday I found a ten dollar bill fluttering along the ground in a parking lot. I of course pounced on it like the first worm of the day for a ravenous robin and then mused that my fortune was tied to the misfortune of the hapless soul who had lost the 10 spot. This too is the opposition factor at work. If we had no opposition in life there'd be nothing opposing our forward progress and therefore no "realness" to the test. What kind of test would life be if there were no way to fail? Conversely how likely would be our chances of successfully navigating the labyrinth of paths in life without the "iron rod" to cling to? Lehi's vision of the tree of life is highly instructive and vital when taken in the context of the tests and trials of mortality.

 

One other point I should not neglect to make here; we are immortal beings in mortal bodies pursuing happiness in this transitory state and hoping for happiness that extends into all eternity. Ponder that one for a minute! When we forget the important element of eternity looming we may tend to lower our sights from the ultimate goal!

 

The Lord's prophets through all of recorded human history have taught that keeping the commandments results in happiness.:

 

 

King Benjamin:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it. (King Benjamin addresses his people, about 124 B.C.) Mosiah 2:41

 

In Proverbs:

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverb of Solomon, king of Israel) Prov.29:18

 

 

Brigham Young (in Discourses of…)

 

 

To make ourselves happy is incorporated in the great design of man's existence. I have learned not to fret myself about that which I cannot help. If I can do good, I will do it; and if I cannot reach a thing, I will content myself to be without it. This makes me happy all the day long. 2:95.

 

 

Truly happy is that man or woman, or that people, who enjoys the privileges of the Gospel of the Son of God, and who know how to appreciate his blessings. 1:309.

236

… We are all searching for happiness; we hope for it, we think we live for it, it is our aim in this life. But do we live so as to enjoy the happiness we so much desire? There is only one way for Latter-day Saints to be happy, which is simply to live their religion, or in other words believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every part, obeying the gospel of liberty with full purpose of heart, which sets us free indeed. If we will, as a community, obey the law of God and comply with the ordinances of salvation, then we may expect to find the happiness we so much desire, but if we do not pursue this course we cannot enjoy the unalloyed happiness which is to be found in the Gospel. To profess to be a Saint, and not enjoy the spirit of it, tries every fibre of the heart, and is one of the most painful experiences that man can suffer. 12:168.

 

We must smile more and gripe less

 

Lift more than cause distress

 

Cheer rather than jeer

 

Forget sleights

 

And most of all Accentuate the positive!!