“Are You Happy?”
Happy birthday! Happy Anniversary! Happy Valentine’s day! Happy Thanksgiving! The word happy is often attached to holidays and wished upon our special days. Not only that, some have asked the question, “Are you happy? Are you a happy wife or a happy husband? Well guess what? You are the only person who can determine if you are happy.
What does it mean to be happy? Happy is defined as delighted, pleased, glad about a particular thing. It is characterized by pleasure, contentment or joy. It can also be defined as favored by fortune or being fortunate. I heard one preacher say that happiness depends on what happens and joy depends on the Lord (Phil 4:4). Happiness is at its fullest when you have a relationship with the Lord and His joy. Happiness fluctuates with circumstances but joy is consistent. So when I ask the question, “Are you happy?” I mean happiness to the fullest.
I have been asking myself this question a lot lately. It all started when I began reading the Happy Wives book (Fawn Weaver). I began evaluating myself. I found that my thought life has a lot to do with being happy. So think about what makes you happy or your standard of happiness. I know there are disappointments and things that happen which make us unhappy, but don’t let them keep you there. Unhappiness also comes when we worry, doubt, focus on the negative, compare what we have to others and when we let the world or someone else define what our happy should be.
I have found that one of the things that makes happiness is gratitude. When I focus my mind on all that God has done and is doing. I can’t help but be happy! Therefore, I want to encourage you to take daily time to recognize and appreciate what you already have (life, health, strength, clothes on your back, food to eat, family, friends, and the list goes on and on). Don’t focus on the things that you can’t change and the goals that you haven’t met. Be happy and don’t allow anyone to rob you of being happy not even YOURSELF. Don’t delay being happy because you are waiting on something to happen. I have been guilty of saying, “I will be happy when . . .” However, I am now being intentional about being happy now! I will close with this famous quote:
“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.”
Until next week . . .
Carolyn
Marriage from A to Z 