Happiness

 

What is happiness? Loosely put, it is the state of being happy, or, a state of contentment or well-being. We have often heard that money can’t buy happiness, yet many of us, through our actions, don’t really believe that do we? We may buy a new car, tool, or toy and initially we will be happy because we have something new. That sense of being happy over our newly acquired object eventually wears off doesn’t it?

Why do we sometimes think of ourselves as unhappy? Why do some folks seem to be terminally unhappy—those folks we really don’t like to be around for very long? Isn’t it really just because we can’t find any contentment or sense of well-being for ourselves at that point in time? We do know that happiness isn’t something we can’t go to Walmart and buy don’t we?

One of the easiest ways to find happiness, not the temporary kind that comes from buying something new, but the more lasting and meaningful kind, is to simply look within ourselves and look at all the good we see there. We need to set our temporary issues and problems aside and just recognize that there is a lot of good residing there in our skin.

If we need to double down a bit, because we may not be quite certain we have anything to be happy about, we need only look around us and we will find others who are far less fortunate than we are, folks who have stuff happening to them that we wouldn’t wish on our worse enemy. And, often times as we look at those folks we will find that they too have a sense of contentment and well-being because their particular issues aren’t worse than they are.

Being happy is infectious to those around us. Granted, there are some grouches out there that find our happiness annoying, but they might just be some who are terminally unhappy. What we don’t know is if our happiness may just be an example for them.

God didn’t make us to be unhappy. He made us to be content, content with ourselves and what is going on around us.  As long as we trust Him, he will take care of our well-being.

Bottom Line Thought: Are you a happy person generally? Do you feel contentment in your life no matter what is going on?