Happiness and Joy

I've always found happiness and joy to be so elusive.  Like trying to find the end of the rainbow...or following the mirage in the dessert, only to find more sand.  I just haven't understood it the way God wanted me to understand it...til recently.

In September our Stake had a special Relief Society Day prior to the General RS broadcast in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The theme of our stake RS day was "Be Happy, On Purpose."  I was so intrigued.  I wondered, Is the Lord trying to tell me something?  I hadn't learned about the Law of Attraction yet, but the Lord had been teaching me a lot of other stuff over the summer in conjunction with the healing that I know He was ready to give me.  So, I went with a heart ready to learn.  They had two classes and we rotated to them in 2 groups.  Then the Priesthood prepared and served us a delicious tri-tip dinner.  But it was the simplest thing ever that sent me home with the message the Lord wanted to give me.  It was printed on the program we received when we entered the door for the opening session.  Two quotes by a beloved prophet in my teen-age years, Spencer W. Kimball.

"The primary reason the Lord sent you here is to make yourself happy and help other people make themselves happy."  (wow!)
"Heavenly Father expects you to make yourself happy.  Don't try to pass on your responsibility to someone else."  (can't find the references to these)

I have collected thoughts, and read and pondered so much on the subject of joy.  All these things coupled with President Kimball's quotes and what I learned from the law of attraction have helped me understand what I need to do to recognize joy in my life.   I think recognizing it is what I was missing.  Happiness and joy are not with us every minute of the day.  Life is a job.  There are plenty of challenges and trials waiting to be had by everyone.  But no matter our circumstances, we can recognize joy in our life.  And we can do this by creating that joy!  Just like we create our thoughts, our life, our environment.  Joy is a choice.  Happiness is a choice.  All good things are gifts from God and we can choose to accept them and use them in our lives. 

It's interesting in 2 Nephi 5:27 when Nephi says, "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness."  This was after escaping into the wilderness away from his wicked brothers who wanted to kill him.  But to "live after the manner of happiness."  It sounds to me like they sought and recognized the joy in their lives, even though they had to start all over again in building up their lives and their new home.

In the book "The Secret" (pg 151) it says, "Everything that you want---all the joy, love, abundance, prosperity, bliss--it's there, ready for you to grab a hold of it.  Recognize the beautiful and wonderful things around you, and bless and praise them.  When you are praising and blessing you are on the highest frequency of love."

That is so beautiful!  We are so blinded by the darkness when we are on the frequency of negativity.  We simply cannot see what really is beautiful and wonderful around us.  My favorite primary song as a child sings:

Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue blue sky
Whenever I feel the rain on my face, or the wind as it rushes by
Whenever I touch a velvet rose, or walk by a lilac tree
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world, Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see, the color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears, that I might hear, the magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart.  I thank Him reverently
For all His creations of which I'm a part.  Yes I know Heavenly Father loves me.

I don't know how I moved so far away from such simple things.  But I do know my trials have served a great purpose in my education, so I'm thankful for them.  They have been my mountain to climb, and I know the 'view' is worth the climb because it's the only place where you can come to know Jesus Christ personally.

Jaroldeen Edwards (in her book Celebrate!) says, "Joy is the purpose for which we were made and framed by our Heavenly Father."  Think about it.  Think about the joy God had in creating me and you.  Why would He not then want us to have JOY?!

The Law of Attraction says that people are responsible for their own joy, and that if we attend to our own joy first, and if we are feeling good because of that joy, then we will be a joy to be around and a "shining example to every child and every person in your life."  They say when we are feeling joy, we don't even have to think about giving it.  It flows naturally from us to others.  "Only one person can be in charge of your joy and bliss, and that's you...your joy lies within you." 

Note "within"...it does not stem from any "thing" external.

Have you ever lived those moments in your life when you think, "I'll know I'll be happy when_____."  Fill in the blank:  I'm done with college, I get a better job, I get married, my kids are grown, I'm retired, we move to a better house, I get that car I want...and so on.  Yeah.  It's the illusive mirage.  Don't be fooled by it.   There's a quote on my side bar:  "The grass isn't greener on the other side.  It's greener where you water it."  So true.  And what about, "When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade!"  We can't wait for joy to come to us.  We need to put joy in our life now.  If we already know now how to create joy, how much better off we will be should harder challenges come our way.

LOA says that joy is on the frequency of love, the highest and most powerful frequency of all.  You can't hold love in your hand. You can only feel love in your heart.  It's a state of being.  Same with joy.

I've been coming across a lot of thoughts of joy being moments.  During the course of a busy and hectic day, we can snatch joy in a single moment.  Maybe we are trying to get across town in busy and backed up traffic and we are slowed to a stop and glance out our window to the meridian dividing the road and see some beautiful flowers planted there.  (That was an actual experience of mine!)  We can capture the joy of their beauty in a single moment.  Maybe it's a day where all the kids are fighting and then your 2 year old says something insightful and funny that gets everyone cracking up and lightens the tension.  What a joyful moment.  Maybe it's just sitting down to dinner and enjoying a wholesome meal and conversation about everyone's day.  Maybe it's just reading a bedtime story to your little ones at night.  Maybe it's just talking to a good friend.  Often, it's the littlest things we do that really matter the most.  Even as small and effortless as to smile and say hi to someone....brings joy to us and them in the capture of a moment. 

We do not remember days, we remember moments.  Think about that.  And it's those moments that are filled with joy and wonder.  Can we be cheerful for a moment?  I bet we can with a conscious effort to create cheerful moments.  Remember, the creation of it is up to us! 

In our mortal journey, we can collect and savor JOY.  How many other things do we collect that just collect dust.  Do we have a collection of JOY?

Our beloved last Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley said, "If you really want to have happiness in this life, do something for somebody else."  Service really does bring joy.  We can hardly be thinking about our own problems when we are in the service of someone else.

Back to Jaroldeen Edwards again (If you can get her book Celebrate! it's well worth the read for some tips at more fully celebrating life) she says something so profoundly related to the Law of Attraction:  "Celebration is self-made. Very slight changes in our attitudes, in the way we use our time, and in our knowledge of ourselves and of the Lord can bring enormous rewards.  Our Father in Heaven will not force our hearts to feel positive emotions.  He wants us to use our God-given agency to choose happiness, to create our own celebrations and measures of joy.  The Lord gives us all the raw material, but He leaves it to us to learn how to find joy in what He has given...Joy just isn't something that happens to you--God commands it and we must live it.  God is the source of all joy.  Creating joy is the finest, most Godlike way to live."

Living joyfully is within our power.  When God gives us a commandment, He also makes a way for us to live that commandment.

Happiness is individual and personal, from our own unique needs, feelings, talents, and perceptions.

Don't focus on what you don't have, make things as they are better.  Feel gratitude.

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk to the RS in Sept. 2008 called "Happiness, Your Heritage."  He said God is a God of creation and compassion.  As we emulate those things we will bring joy into our life.  I loved the whole talk.  But here is a small quote from it that has large impact, "The number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance."  Creating joy and serving others.  It really sums it all up.

In Isaiah 12:23 he says, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the well of salvation."  In the 2004 Women's Conference themed "The Joy of Our Salvation" Sandra Rogers said, "Like a wilted plant in a dry grown, our souls will spring back to vitality with water drawn with joy from the wells of salvation.   We can remember the Lord's tender mercies in bleak times and be refreshed with His living water."

I know the Lord has been offering me living water from His well, and I have drank deeply for the past 5 months and I can testify to the vitality it is giving me.  Not that I haven't been drinking His living water for quite some time, but this living water He has been offering me has been Healing Living Water! 

Through it all, I am more grateful than ever for my trials.  Opposition is important because we can't know joy without knowing sorrow.  We can't know deep joy without knowing deep sorrow.  The greater our sorrow, the greater our joy.

Elder Neal A Maxwell said, "It is ungraceful, unjustified, and unbecoming of us as church members to be constantly grumpy or of a woeful countenance."  (I have been guilty of this--but I hope, no more!)  Just like Elder Eyring said, to fill ourselves with things that will give others more reason to hope. That we will be an example of hope to those around us.

One of my favorite scriptures:  "Let us cheerfully do all things that lie within our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, for His arm to be revealed."  (Doctrine & Covenants 123:17)

Note the "then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance"....stand still and grasps those moments of joy.

"Enjoy the simple experiences of life without taking yourself too seriously in the process."  -Marjorie Hinckley

"Happiness and Joy come when we are living up to who we are."  -Sheri Dew

"Whatever God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postponing your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been, you may say that you have lived happily."  -President Thomas S. Monson (Ensign 11/08)