Love

Thanks Dad for reading!! You know, 2 Nephi 5:27 got me thinking - what is happiness and how do we know when we have it?

You know, really, we think happiness is having what we want. We sometimes think I'll be happy if this happened or if I had that. And it can be things, feelings, events, experiences, relationships . . . . the list goes on and on. But the one constant I have found in my life that any time I am trying to find something I never seem to find happiness. it is only when I stop trying to find happiness and start giving that I wake up one day and realize that I'm happy.

I love what Elder Wirthlin said in conference:

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of transformation. It takes us as men and women of the earth and refines us into men and women for the eternities.

The means of this refinement is our Christlike love. There is no pain it cannot soften, no bitterness it cannot remove, no hatred it cannot alter. The Greek playwright Sophocles wrote: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”¹⁵

The most cherished and sacred moments of our lives are those filled with the spirit of love. The greater the measure of our love, the greater is our joy. In the end, the development of such love is the true measure of success in life.

The measure of my happiness and success is how much I love. And its not just having relationships with people who love you and therefore you love. It's about the choice to love. My true choice in any situation is what I feel. I may act like I'm not angry but still feel anger. Those around me will still react to the the anger they sense. I may act like I love someone and yet still feel frustrated with them. My real choice is when I ignored the voice that told me to love them and move on, but I told myself that I was justified in being frustrated because they had wronged me. And yet in that moment it is my peace and my happiness I destroy. I destroy it because I think I want to feel justified when what I really want is love. The moment I betray that desire to love I feel like I have to rationalize my choice.

Every great person I have known has not been great because they achieved a lot. They haven't been great because of their talents. They are great because they choose to love and feel peace. Some are well off and the world would consider successful. Some have nothing. But the constant is that they love. The moments that I consider great in my life occurred when I wasn't looking for anything but something to give. The question is will I get in my own way?

It is scary sometimes to see how easy it is to let that peace and happiness slip away. It is easy to forget who we are and who everyone around us is. It is easy to forget that God is love. Not just some figurative being of literature, but my Father. He is love. It is the simplest and yet most complete statement you can make about Him. All I have to do is choose to love.