Monday, July 22, 2013

Happiness V.S. Joy

Today, in an e-mail conversation I was having with Daniel I shared a message our Home Teachers (they're other members of our church who come over once a month, or whenever we need them, just to say hi and check in on us to make sure we are doing alright.) had shared with us. The message was about being happy today. Not just looking at our past and remembering the good times, or looking to the future and imagining how happy we will be, but living in the moment today- are we happy? So I shared the message with Daniel and then asked him, "So, little brother, are you happy?" This was his reply:

You bet!! How can you have The Gospel in your life and not be happy?! God set it up this way! "...men are that they might have joy." It's part of God's plan for us to experience joy. Ultimately it is going to be Joy that brings us Eternal happiness, because that's what it is! There is a difference between joy and happiness. You can be happy and not satisfied and you can be satisfied and not happy! But when you experience true joy, the joy that comes from our Father above, from living Gospel Standards and choosing to do what is right, "standing as a witness of Christ at all times, in all things, and in all places that ye may be in," that is when you experience joy.  So, am I happy, of course! Am I experiencing joy? I sure feel like I am on my way to knowing that feeling. It's an amazing thing, being a missionary. I cant tell you how much I have learned while being out here. My outlook on EVERYTHING has changed because of my mission. 

1 comment:

  1. Wow!! Amazingly profound comments from my little boy! Are you sure Daniel wrote this? Maybe someone stole the keyboard from him. Yikes, my little boy is growing up.

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