Upon the circumstances and experiences in my life today. I feel inspired and motivated to share with you a more intimate comprehension of the very principle of Happiness. My focus and goal though is to ultimately move us forward to understanding the most important principle and answer which is. What brings us not only happiness but eternal and everlasting happiness. I am currently finishing school at SLCCC (Salt Lake City Community College) I have approximately 2 semesters left before I can transfer to my next destination. I'm still unsure where I'll go but I am majoring in Criminal Justice and Psychology. Yes I know very bold but I want to be able to use my talents wisely and appropriately with the right occupation so that I not only provide for my future family but that I truly touch and change people's lives. I know save the world right. Well I can say that I surely won't save the world on my own because the world was already saved. The Savior Jesus Christ already died for us and suffered so that the world might not be condemn but that through our belief in Him we could be saved. Henceforth my efforts are merely to follow and do as He did. Service is key in having that true eternal Happiness. Which leads me into that first principle.
1. Service
Serving others bring a lot of happiness to our lives. Especially the service we render at home with our own families. I think a lot of times we neglect those people when we consider the action of giving or preforming service. In my life I've had many opportunities and I'm sure all of you have had enough and plenty of times where you could give service. Whether it's cleaning something you don't usually do. For me in that case mostly its cleaning up the kitchen for my Mom or just keeping the house clean for her. My Mom is so good at keeping things clean and as well in order but sometimes with life's challenges she chooses not to set that as a priority and She attends to something else that's more important and necessary at the time. Also it could be just something simple playing video games with your younger siblings instead of going out and leaving that at home by themselves so that you could go out and get into some trouble I mean debauchery lol. Point is that there are so many opportunities we have to give service. Whether we're at school, work, home or at play. We need to be alert and aware in showing compassion and love towards others. There's an awesome music video of the MOTAB (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) that I want you to see. It's one of the their songs and it's by far one of my favorites. I heard it and also saw this video while I was a serving a mission. Enjoy
2. Patience
Having patience is hard! I think one of the greatest thing we can learn living here in the world today is that we need a lot of patience. Just the other day I was driving home from and some guy cut me off. We've all heard it you probably know what my response and action after could of been. I actually only sped up and when are cars were parallel I just gave him the stare. No finger no bomb words just the stare. Than I sped off to wherever I was going. I think I may have said what an idiot! Well regardless of the reaction is wasn't Christlike neither was it something a patient person would do. For me having patience has been a constant principle and virtue I have had re-learn over and over again. For me I've been tested a lot by my own family also from peers at school, even people I know at Church. Sometimes though we just have to let it go and just move on. When we lose our temper or even are sense of control there are terrible results and outcomes. I remember one night coming home from a basketball game with my Dad and some guy on a motorcycle cut him off. My Dad was livid. I mean he was angry and upset. Well he drove up next to the guy and started shouting and yelling at him. I think he probably honked at him. The guy ended turning around and flipped him off and told him to follow him. I was thinking in my mind this guy is dumb and stupid. My Dad would kick his butt easily but at the same time I thought what is he doing. This is not a good idea. We followed him and he turn off to a different road and we just kept driving on and we never saw him again but later that night. I watched the news and saw that 2 people were killed after they argued with another driver who allegedly cut them off and they pull over and exchanged some words. Than the one driver shot them both to death. In my mind I was thinking that could of been me and my Dad. Thankfully it wasn't but there are so many possible outcomes of when we lose our patience. I had a scoutmaster who told me never to judge anyone. When we lose our patience we judge people I'll explain why. We never know the reason why people do things. In my opinion 99.9% of the time unless it's our family even in some cases this applies to our own families. We don't know the why of people's decisions. We don't know why people commit horrible crimes, or why people make bad investments or even why people decide to have peanut butter and strawberry jam instead of our favorite jam peach. Whatever the situation or circumstance when people don't do things OUR WAY, or the WAY WE THINK THINGS ARE SUPPOSE TO BE DONE we freak we lose it, we get mad, we argue whatever our reaction if it's in no way supporting them or accepting there decision. We are simply loosing our patience and essentially taking a step backward. We don't know if they had a problem emotionally, mentally, psychically, etc. Also I don't know if that guy who cut me off needed to get somewhere in a hurry. My Mom always says this so I'm going to don this phrase. "Maybe they need to go to the bathroom". My new one is maybe there wife is pregnant. Whatever the case is of course when someone does something wrong it's not right. We know that but we need to be patient and forgive them for that not get in their face and yell at them for being a moron. When we demonstrate service and patience we essentially create a great and important peace of the equation of finding eternal happiness that is hope.
3. HOPE
Hope is so necessary in our world today. We have so many terrible things happening and the last thing people think of is hope. We have to believe and have faith the hope exist. Have hope that we can find that right job, or find the right car to buy or even on a small and simple level. The hope that we can figure what clothes to wear. For me hope is so crucial and essential in finding eternal happiness. I've had a lot things happened to me recently where my faith and my belief and also my trust has been tested. I've had to hold on to the hope that everything will be okay as I try to do all that I can to mover forward in life. I've had to make a lot of tough decision. Forgoing a job to be a part of a family vacation as well as start from scratch at school. Even start fresh in a relationship because of my choice to be dishonest. Whatever the case has been I've needed hope to drive me and push along the path in life. There are a lot of things that power and energize the hope that's inside of me. Most of it comes from my faith and trust in God. Also my religious beliefs that knowledge that I have received from being a member a the LDS Church (Mormon). In all reasoning though I've had to have trust and confidence in my own self. That's been the toughest. To trust myself as well as my knowledge and the experience I've had and say that is enough to tackle on something new and hard. To say well I know enough so it's time for a new challenge. In life we have fears I have many. The fear to not succeed also I have fear within fears. I could almost categorize and make a thorough list of what they are but at the end of the day I have to say no to those doubts and questions and lift my head and say I can do this. This is not that hard. I can do anything I work hard at. When our mind and heart as well as our vision is optimistic we will have success in what we pursue. We must never doubt or fear. When fear and doubts take the place of our thought process and our mindset we are doomed to our own failure and we have signed it willingly. We must say no to failure, we must set a plan also brainstorm ideas and ways we can accomplish our desires and dreams also our duties regardless of what others say. One of the most common fear today is the fear of people judgments. Whether we admit it or not everyone fears some sort of judgement or shunning in things we do, say, look like, acquire in life, and our aspirations. I've fell slave to this lie and fear. It's cause be me a lot of damage as well as inflicted pain and hurt on other people many of them people that I truly love and care about. When we worry or pay to close attention to what people think or say about us we are giving up on the eternal progression and freedom hope brings to our lives and minds. I love these quotes there are from great and successful and in there own minds and hearts happy! Enjoy
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.”
― John Lennon
“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson
“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
“Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters
“It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley
4. Humility
One of societies greatest downfall in turning to the opposite and devastating counter part pride. Humility is the secret to any happiness or any ounce of success. When we think about the greatest accomplishments in the history of the world sometimes we begin a cycle of a destroying thought and also idea that we leave entertaining in our minds. When we forget about what we do and what other do we become simply a teachable person someone capable of learning almost all the things in the world, all the knowledge that exist in the universe. When a humble mind and heart reaches the destination of choice the outcome and result is and increase of growth and progress towards the final destination and essentially the path to happiness. Most people who are humble are happy. Because they no nothing more or anything better than what they are experimenting or living at the time. I have found this in a lot of the people I taught on my mission in Guatemala. The people there are the poorest people and communities I ever met but still somehow they were happy. Happy that they work so hard everyday knowing the result what little income, sometimes not even enough food to provide to their families, corruption and continual crimes and more depression and no progression towards social and economic value or acceptance. Despite this they lived. They live there lives and still do to this day live it as if they had nothing better or more than what they knew. There we people I also ran into that had forgotten that completely forgotten what it meant to have so little and still be happy and survive and than out of no where fall into a bunch of money and start living life large. Most of those people engaged in some illegal things but I'm no one to judge. A lot of them turned away from the their faith and God himself. The sad thing is that it all started from the top with the parents and made it's way all the way down to the children. May continue to strive forward and forget about what makes us high in the social world and may we just focus and concentrate and achieve what will make us find happiness that last not just for a moment or for a couple days or even for a year or two.
Eternal Happiness last forever it's something that doesn't just go away it's a continual feeling a peace and assurance. A tranquility that causes the mind to feel security in the future as well as a certainty that even though life's hardest challenges such as illnesses, disaster, financial depression, attacks on freedom and liberties, even death all will be well because the greatest and most eternal happiness one can have is the knowledge that you can live with you families forever even beyond death. That your spouse will help you obtain the highest reward God has up in store for you. That you can overcome death, and personal weaknesses and challenges and finish triumphant. Also the assurance that this is the end there is more than this life. Despite chaos and terror in the world there exist peace and love within the borders of your own home. I love my life and all of my challenges that's what makes me stronger knowing that I will some obtain eternal happiness.
