A Plan for Happiness

By: Eva Fry
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:41:51
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God has given us a plan for happiness. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and found in His scriptures. If we follow His plan, we will have happiness in this life and we will be worthy to return to Him when we die. This is called eternal life, which will be the ultimate happiness. His Gospel teaches us the commandments we must keep to find this happiness. He does not give us His commandments to put us in bondage or make our life difficult. Obedience to Christ’s teachings gives us freedom from the things, which can destroy us, which take us away from the happiness He offers.

On the other hand, Satan knows who we are and what we can become. He knows God and Jesus and all that they have to offer. Satan will do everything he can to frustrate God’s plan of happiness. We must be aware of Satan’s plan of misery and not allow him to take us over.

God’s plan for happiness is plain and simple. We must be obedient to His teachings and not fall for Satan’s temptations. When you are aware of Satan’s enticing you will have greater power to overcome them and to follow God. One of Satan’s tools is to teach us to look at the negative thing, which comes our way, as punishment, or to believe that God doesn’t care for us. A common thought when bad things happen is “If there really was a God these things wouldn’t happen.” This kind of thinking is a lie and it is how Satan wants us to think. We must look at the negative things of life in a way that helps us make sense of them and so they don’t destroy us. We must look for the lesson He is trying to teach us.

The following ideas may help you understand this theory.

1. We must understand the purpose of negative things in our life and realize that everything happens for our development and growth to direct us toward our life’s purpose and mission. God doesn’t cause the negative things to happen in our life but allows us to experience things, which we can learn from. When we understand this we will be happier

2. Once we look at the trails and tragedies of our life in a more positive and healthier way we can do the work necessary to overcome them. When we do, we can better see their purpose and see how we can use them for motivation to a better life. This idea will also help you be happier.

Ex: I had an alcoholic father, who literally ruined my childhood and left me with scares that almost stopped my progress in life. I had to find a way to look at life differently and then discover the purpose for the hurts in my life. I discovered, and now understand, that they were the stepping-stones toward discovering my life’s purpose and mission. I have used what I learned from my childhood and my Dad’s mistakes to help young people look at their lives in a more positive way and help save then from the same pains I had has a child. I have spent year’s teachings young people, at Juvenile Hall not to drink alcohol and to choose the right. Turning this negative into a positive has brought me great happiness.

3. One of the ways to overcome past hurts is to move on. We must learn the principal of forgiveness. When we can fully forgive someone who has hurt us it sets us free of hatred and anger and allows us freedom to get on with our life. This is a hard principal but with God’s help we can do it. A good way to get on with our life is to get our thoughts going in positive ways. We can do this by discovering our gifts and talents and developing them. When we are growing we are happy. When we are progressing we don’t have time to dwell in the negative. Developing ourselves is what God expects of us. With accomplishment we will start feeling good about our life and ourselves. The people that hurt us don’t matter as much. We like our mates and parents, etc, more because we like ourselves more. When we love ourselves and others we are happier.

4. We must be aware and in control of our thoughts. When our negative thoughts try to take us over, we must stop them. We must ask God to help us get rid of the negative, hurtful thoughts and we must find a way to replace them with positive thoughts. Our minds can’t be negative and positive at the same time. We have the power to replace negative, damaging thoughts with positive, uplifting thoughts. We can’t let the thoughts of our past destroy our future, or the thoughts or hurts others have caused, to bring us down. Our negative thoughts can destroy us if we allow them. A man who taught in the prisons said, “We are what we think.” This idea is powerfully true. If you are in control of your thoughts you’ll be happier

5. We must recognize the spiritual truths of life. There is good and bad in life. We must look for the good in life, others and ourselves, but we must also be aware that there is a negative force in life that wants to destroy us, depress us and stop us. This is Satan. This force is always there, if we allow it. The reality is that God has a plan of happiness for us and Satan knows the plan and will do everything he can to stop it. We must be aware of this and live our life accordingly. Outsmarting Satan can bring you happiness. God is more powerful than Satan.

Happiness and fulfillment come from developing the gifts and talents God has blessed us with and striving to reach our potential and overcoming the negative parts of our life – moving past them and learning from them. We must then use our gifts in the service of others to discover our life’s mission. By giving help, joy and pleasure to others, through the gifts and talents we have been blessed with, we bring personal joy and happiness to ourselves. We then realize that all that happens in our life, good and bad, is to given us for experience, so we can reach our own potential and help others. If we think properly we can be in the service of our God and we will find happiness. This is God’s plan for happiness.

Article source: Expert Articles