Don't Worry--Be Happy!

“If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful.”

-D&C 136:28-29

“Do you think our Father in Heaven wants you to feel depressed and sad? He wants no such thing. He has provided the commandments, which are the royal road to a life of purpose, peace, and joy. All we need to do is follow it. Knowing and living God’s commandments really do lead to fulfillment and to joy. Our destiny is greater than we can imagine. If only we understood who we are and what is in store for us, our hearts would overflow with such gratitude and happiness that it would enlighten even the darkest sorrows with the light and love of God, our Heavenly Father.

The next time you feel unhappy, remember where you came from and where you are going. Rather than focus on things that dampen your thoughts with sorrow, choose to focus on those things that fill your soul with hope. You will realize that these things are always connected to serving God and our fellowmen. It is well for you to laugh! It is well for you to be happy! Lift up your voices and “praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving”.

I cannot imagine a heaven filled only with somber beings who never speak up or who do not enjoy music and visiting with each other. That is not heaven for me. I am certain that you were not created to spend the hours and days of your lives isolated from each other in worry or despair. You were created to have joy, so let’s celebrate the merciful blessings of a joyful and loving Heavenly Father!

You don’t need to wait for permission to fill your hearts with thanksgiving and happiness. You can do this nicely on your own. It is my earnest prayer that the knowledge of who you are and what you may become will fill your souls with the peaceable love of God and that this will ignite within you a happiness worthy of your true heritage, for in truth you are princes and princesses, kings and queens.”

-President Uchtdorf

It's hard for me to stay optimistic and upbeat during winter. Everything just seems gloomier, darker, sadder, bader, worser. Turning to Christ and serving those around me is the only way I've found to beat these winter blues. I think sometimes we focus too much on how Heavenly Father wants us to grow and improve to be more like Him and not enough on how extremely super much He wants us to be happy. When we are happy it makes Him happy because we are not only His work and His glory, but His source of joy.

And besides--there is SO much to be happy about! There's family and friends and school and church and scriptures and prayer and sunshine and heated homes and birthdays and books and shoes and socks and food and yummy smells and technology and chocolate and laughter and bodies and music and marriage and service and work and kids and cute old people and the color green and ice cream and washing machines and dirt and showers and chick flicks and letters and smiles and goals and purpose and feelings and so many other wonderful things. Refuse to let Satan pull you down. Fight back, make the hard choices, and be happy.

Trust in the Lord

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” –Proverbs 3:5-6

“This life is an experience in profound trust—trust in Jesus Christ, trust in His teachings, trust in our capacity as led by the Holy Spirit to obey those teachings for happiness now and for a purposeful, supremely happy eternal existence. To trust means to obey willingly without knowing the end from the beginning. To produce fruit, your trust in the Lord must be more powerful and enduring than your confidence in your own personal feelings and experience.” –Richard G. Scott, October 1995 General Conference

This is one of my favorite scriptures. The Lord wants us to succeed and be happy even more than we do. It will be okay when we put aside our own thoughts and feelings and follow the promptings of the Spirit. When we have pure, good, righteous desires the Lord will not let us down. He cannot. He loves us too much to. I loved this video because in shows how much the Lord cares for those that the world don’t take much notice of. To the world this small, humble family’s plight was insignificant. But it wasn't to the Lord. Because the girl was living righteously and had righteous desires He provided. He will provide for us too when we live in a similarly righteous and obedient manner.

Come Unto Me

"Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be reconciled to they brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you." -3 Nephi 12:24

“Just because God is God, just because Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and bless us and help us if we will but come unto them, approaching their throne of grace in meekness and lowliness of heart. They can’t help but bless us. They have to. It is their nature. That is why Joseph Smith gave those lectures on faith, so we would understand the nature of godliness and in the process have enough confidence to come unto Christ and find peace to our souls. There is not a single loophole or curveball or open trench to fall into for the man or woman who walks the path that Christ walks. When he says, “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22), he means that he knows where the quicksand is and where the thorns are and the best way to handle the slippery slope near the summit of our personal mountains. He knows it all, and he knows the way. He is the way.” -Jeffrey R. Holland, April 1998 Ensign

My favorite part of this scripture is that is says to come unto Christ with full purpose of heart. Coming unto Christ should not be a passive thing. It should not be something we think on and do if we have time once our homework is done, the house is clean, and we’re done working for the day. It needs to be the drive behind everything we do. When we do come unto Him—as Elder Holland says—everything becomes easier. Those things which we sometimes mistakenly put before coming unto Him suddenly become easier and more doable; not because Christ has changed the situation, but because he has changed us. Coming unto Christ changes us and give us the capacity to work more cheerfully, serve more abundantly, love more perfectly, and live more fully. It should be the full purpose of our hearts because it is truly the thing which makes our hearts full.

Doubt

So. One of my New Year goals is to blog every Sunday about a scripture I've read that week. Let's see how long I can keep it up! Here's post number one...

"And there began to be great doubtings and disputations among the people, notwithstanding so many signs had been given." -3 Nephi 8:4

"As Latter-day Saints, ours in not the options of doubting and fearing. Ours is the opportunity of believing and acting." -Gordon B. Hinckley, January 2000 New Era

In this scripture the people begin doubting right before the signs come. How often do we start doubting right before the Lord is about to prove Himself? Satan would have us doubt to draw us further away from the Lord. Why do we listen to his whispering? Why do we even take the time to consider them? To let them in? As President Hinckley hinted to, I think that doubt often sprouts when we are being inactive. I don't me inactive as in not going to church activities and such. I mean it as when we are not anxiously engaged in a good cause. Are we actively building and serving and growing, or are we just going through the motions? I know that if we are actively involved in the good things which the Lord has commanded us to be involved in that doubt cannot arise. When we are sincerely praying, when we are reading our scriptures, when we are fulfilling our church callings, when we are serving our fellow men--when we are doing all these things there is no time in our lives and no room in our hearts to doubt. Doing these things will bring the Spirit into our lives and He will testify of the truthfulness of all things.