Happiness

Happiness! What a great thing! I know that we are truly to be happy. Over the years, I've learned ways to be happy. I've learned a great lesson recently---that is to be happy not based on something else or someone else. I know that is possible through Jesus Christ and His teachings. It is amazing how profound an effect our motives have. I've noticed recently that I can serve in essentially everything I do. Doing the dishes for the sake of getting things clean and not having it be so chaotic is one thing---it can totally change when you are cleaning for someone else. I definitely believe that happiness is so important to have. A happy person can do so much and help so profoundly---sometimes it can be challenging. I hope that I can look more to others and how I can help relieve their burdens and help them to be happy. Here are some words from a couple of servants of God concerning happiness. I hope to add to this post.

So to be happy and to avoid misery, we must have a grateful heart. We have seen in our lives the connection between gratitude and happiness. All of us would like to feel gratitude, yet it is not easy to be consistently grateful in all things in the trials of life. Sickness, disappointment, and the loss of people we love come at times in our lives. Our sorrows can make it hard to see our blessings and to appreciate the blessings God has in store for us in the future.

It is a challenge to count our blessings because we have a tendency to take good things for granted. When we lose a roof over our heads, food to eat, or the warmth of friends and family, we realize how grateful we should have been when we had them.

Most of all, sometimes it is hard for us to be sufficiently grateful for the greatest gifts we receive: the birth of Jesus Christ, His Atonement, the promise of resurrection, the opportunity to enjoy eternal life with our families, the Restoration of the gospel with the priesthood and its keys. Only with the help of the Holy Ghost can we begin to feel what those blessings mean for us and for those we love. And only then can we hope to be thankful in all things and avoid the offense to God of ingratitude.

We must ask in prayer that God, by the power of the Holy Ghost, will help us see our blessings clearly even in the midst of our trials. He can help us by the power of the Spirit to recognize and be grateful for blessings we take for granted. What has helped me the most is to ask God in prayer, “Wouldst Thou please direct me to someone I can help for Thee?” It is in helping God bless others that I have seen my own blessings more closely.

(President Henry B. Eyring, "The Choice to Be Grateful," First Presidency Message, December 2011)


These are profound words. As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness.

(President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Happiness, Your Heritage," General Conference, October 2008)


I hope you are happy, and, if you are not, I hope you will become happy soon!