The Happiness Decision

One of my favorite scriptures in all of holy writ is this statement about the little band of people who followed Nephi into the wilderness. "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." (2 Nephi 5:27)

God's nature – his natural state – is to be happy. When we go "contrary to the nature of God; therefore, [we] are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness" (see Alma 41:11)

The opposite of happiness is misery. I have a plaque on my wall that says, "Afflictions are required, misery is optional." Attitude rather than circumstances is the source of happiness. It is not what happens to me but what I make out of what happens to me that determines my level of happiness.

Happiness, therefore, is a decision. We make ourselves happy.

Happiness vs. Joy

Similar to, but not the same as, happiness is joy. They are not synonymous. Joy is a gift. God gives us joy.

A case in point: the scriptures contain 333 references to "joy", but only 27 references to "happiness". In the economy of the scriptures, joy is over ten times more important than happiness. It is nice to be happy, but happiness can be fleeting. God wants us to have joy. That is his goal.

Joy should, therefore, be our ultimate goal. Happiness is the road that leads to joy.

The difference between happiness and joy

I am happy quite frequently. I try to be happy everyday. When I am tempted to be miserable, if I put my mind to it, I can decide to be happy instead. Happiness happens so often I cannot keep track of the moments.

Joy, however, is poignant and memorable. Examples of moments of joy in my life:

• The day I knew for myself that the Book of Mormon was true
• The day I married my eternal sweetheart
• The birth of each of our children
• The first time I taught a lesson in the Gospel Doctrine class and felt the Holy Ghost working through me
• Every time I find myself in the mountains on a beautiful day enjoying God's creations
• The day I finished a particularly difficult hike up the Bairgutsman trail to the peak
• The day my team at work celebrated the successful conclusion of an eight-year project.

The prophet Lehi taught his family, "Men are that they might have joy" (2 Ne 2:25). Joy is the feeling of great pleasure, peace, and contentment. We are designed and engineered to seek pleasure and feel joy. It is in our very DNA. It is a powerful motivator, sometimes even more powerful than self-preservation. Joy comes as a result of our decision to be happy.

To emphasize that joy is a gift, recall Lehi's experience in his dream of the Tree of Life. After having wandered in a dark and dreary wasteland for many hours, he encountered a guide who showed him the way to the Tree of Life. In relating this dream, he told his sons, "And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen. And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy" (1 Nephi 8:11-12).  Nephi later learned that the tree and its fruit represent the love of God and eternal life, which is the greatest of all of the gifts of God. God's love is the greatest and surest source of joy. When we have God's love, we feel joy.

The joy of God's love is communicated to us through the Holy Ghost. Therefore, if we want true joy, we need to attune ourselves to his Spirit. God loves us all the time, but he expresses his love most freely when we are obedient and engaged in his service.

The Book of Mormon provides us with another key to joy. When Aaron presented the message of the gospel to the king of the Lamanites, "behold, said he, I will give up all that I possess, yea, I will forsake my kingdom, that I may receive this great joy" (Alma 22:15).

Joy is a marvelous gift, but it comes at a cost. We do not earn it, hence it is a gift of God. We do, however, have to qualify for it. We qualify to feel his love for us, and the joy that accompanies that love, when we serve him. Obedience and service generally require sacrifice. The more we sacrifice, the better qualified we are to receive joy. Brigham Young said that he never felt more of the love of God than when he and the saints were being mobbed and driven because he knew his sacrifice was acceptable to the Lord. The more we sacrifice for the Lord's sake, the more freely he can express his love for us, and the more joy we will feel.

Choosing happiness usually means choosing to serve, and service brings joy.

Lessons of joy and happiness

Adam and Eve learned the first lessons of joy and happiness. After having transgressed in the Garden of Eden, and finding themselves in the lone and dreary world, they evaluated their situation, and summarized it thus: "And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled... saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient"(Moses 5:10-11).

Joy is not reserved for the next life only. There are joys to be had in this mortal probation. We do not have a fullness of joy here, as I will discuss in a moment, but this life is not without joy.

Adam equated the opening of his eyes with joy. Eve said that her joy was in knowing that she was redeemed. Without a knowledge of Christ and the Atonement, it would be hard to have any kind of deep and abiding joy in this life. Our sins and mistakes would curse us forever. It would be impossible to look past all of the wrongs in this world – all of the injustice, pain, and sorrow – and feel joyful. But because of Christ's Atonement, we can have the peace of knowing that all wrongs will eventually be righted. With that knowledge, we can allow ourselves a measure of joy without feeling guilty and without being overwhelmed by the sorrows that are still among us in mortality.

When we choose to follow Christ and accept his Atonement, we choose happiness. The Atonement brings joy.

Like I mentioned earlier, we can not have perfect joy in this world. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord told the saints who were suffering persecutions in Missouri, "in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full" (D&C 101:36).

Joy comes in degrees. When something is full, it contains as much as possible, it is complete in every detail, there are no restraints, it has all distinguishing characteristics, it lacks nothing essential in its nature, it is at the highest or greatest degree. Without Christ, though we may have a measure of joy, it is less than complete. It is constrained. It lacks certain characteristics of the joy that God feels. Some essential aspects are missing. it is not as great as it could be.

While joy can be a part of life in this world, it is not the sole purpose of mortal life. Mortality is a probation – a test. While we may taste of the rewards to come, we do not enjoy the full rewards until the full test has been administered and passed. We cannot pass the test without Christ. Only through his Atonement can we overcome the sins and transgressions that mar our lives. Only through the Atonement can the pains of this life be fully healed – both the pains that we cause others and the pains that others cause us.

Each decision we make for good is a decision for happiness. Goodness brings joy.

Fullness of joy

The Book of Mormon also teaches us that the joy of the righteous who inherit the kingdom of God shall be full forever (see 2 Ne 9:18). Joy is more than just the absence of pain. Eternal life with Heavenly Father and Christ is a fullness of joy forever. There is no end to joy, just as there is no end to life, because there is no end to creation, and in creation we have joy.

Yet even Heavenly Father's joy is not constant and unlimited. Enoch saw God weep over his wicked children who refused to accept and obey him.

In his Beloved Son, however, the Father's joy is full. It is complete and unreserved. There is nothing in Christ that diminishes the Father's joy and pleasure in his Son. As we become like Christ, Father's joy becomes more complete in us. We rejoice when we bring joy to the One we love. And so as his joy increases in us, our joy increases.

When we choose to love God, we choose happiness. Love brings joy.

The source of joy

One more point on joy. The Savior promises us, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy" (D&C 11:13). God is the source of joy. Because he has a fullness of joy, and because he loves us, he shares his joy with us.

The Holy Ghost is the medium of communication between God and man. Thus, it is through the Holy Ghost that God radiates his joy to us. It is therefore essential, if we want to feel God's joy in this life, that we be in tune with his Spirit. To the degree that we can qualify for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, we can have a constant source of joy. The gift of the Holy Ghost is a gift of joy. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are filled with joy. The soul of man is the uniting of body and spirit. To have our souls filled with joy is to have both temporal and spiritual joy. Such joy touches every part of our lives. It touches our senses as well as our hearts.

As noted earlier, joy is the great motivator. There are counterfeits and approximations everywhere, but they are temporary at best, and debilitating and destructive at their worst. The only dependable source of true and inexhaustible joy is God through the Holy Ghost because of Christ's Atonement.

God rejoices in us. Our greatest joys are centered in others. If we want joy, we should work to ensure that others have joy. Their joy adds to our joy. Hence the scripture in D&C 18:15 "And if it so be that you labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Our joy will be the greater because the joy of our loved one will be great.

We can make the decision for happiness every day. We choose joy for a lifetime and beyond.