I was scrolling through the internet this morning, mainly through news sites when I came across a question: how happy are you? I opened the link and while it didn’t assess my happiness, it did give options to increasing it.
They suggested happiness can be increased by nurturing relationships, laughing more, focusing more on the positive and starting a gratitude journal.
Picture from mortgage.com
The picture comes from mortgage.com which is a bit of an irony. While you may be grateful to have a mortgage, it can also be a millstone around your neck! But that is where focusing on the positive comes in. Having a mortgage means you have a house. That’s a good thing.
I think happiness really does begin with gratitude. It’s a sense of positive well-being that rises in your heart and is fluffed up and enhanced when you smile and laugh. Happiness is also made up of peace & love. They go hand in hand in hand.
Picture from dreamstime.com
A lot of times it is hard to find happiness when so much rot is going on around you. I don’t like opening the news sites – so much bad news, sad news, awful violent news – it all makes my heart sink every time, especially when you see our glorious land so rife with evil.
It’s not going to go away. This world is evil to the core. While sin abounds, there will never be a lack of strife on this planet, be it South Africa or any other country.
And so my happiness cannot depend on what is going on around me. It has to depend on something that is inside me – a Power that transcends the grime and cleans the rot and is bigger than the mess that surrounds it. Only God can do that.
We have to trust our lives to Him & cling to Him for any semblance of ongoing happiness. He can lift us out of the miry pit and inject in us a sense of security and peace and love.
And I think the combination of the three – happiness, peace and love culminates in contentment. It’s a learned art. It doesn’t come naturally. I think we have to make a determined effort to trust God in all things; to seek the good; to appreciate all we have; to smile often and reach out to those around us.
Don’t only seek it for yourself – seek it for others as well.
Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
Keep the smile going! 🙂
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx
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