That They Might Have Joy

Two talks in the most recent general conference were about how to find happiness. Elder Yoon Choi asked the question Do You Want to Be Happy? in the title of his address. He summarized the answer to his own question in the first paragraph: “Do you want to be happy? What makes you unhappy? President Russell M. Nelson said: ‘If you want to be miserable, break the commandments—and never repent. If you want joy, stay on the covenant path.’ Isn’t it simple to be happy? Just make covenants and keep them in your lives.” We find happiness as we make and keep covenants with the Savior. After explaining how he and his wife are yoked together and help each other, he said, “Taking our Savior’s yoke upon us is like that. As we yoke ourselves to Him, we can do things we couldn’t do on our own because He can do the things we cannot do for ourselves.” We are happier when we make and keep covenants with the Savior because we have more power to overcome challenges and weaknesses in our lives. We are happier not because all of our problems go away but because we have a Way through all of our problems with Him. Elder Choi quoted this teaching from President Nelson which summarizes the principle the best: “The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power.”  

In the next session Elder Gary B. Sabin titled his remarks Hallmarks of Happiness as he also spoke about how find happiness. His first point was similar to Elder Choi’s message: “My first observation is that building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ is essential to our happiness. This is a sure foundation, ‘a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.’ Doing so prepares us for the challenges of life, come what may.” I believe that building a foundation on Jesus Christ and making covenants with Him are synonymous. We build our foundation on the Savior precisely by making and keeping covenants with Him, doing the things that He would have us do. Other principles that Elder Sabin taught stem naturally from the first: building a foundation on the Savior leads us to “remember that we are sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father,” to “remember the worth of a soul,” to “maintain an eternal perspective,” and ultimately to live a life of gratitude. Jesus Christ is at the center of our opportunity for happiness. I love the way that C.S. Lewis put it: “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” In his famous teaching to his son Jacob, Lehi said, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” Perhaps it would be better that there was not a verse division before the next sentence, for I believe they are meant to come together: “And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall” (2 Nephi 2:25-26). We are meant to have joy, and that joy can come because the Messiah came. We cannot find joy without the Messiah. Lehi had felt that “exceedingly great joy” in his vision of the tree of life: “And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy” (1 Nephi 8:12). From Nephi we later learned that this joy was encapsulated in the Son of God and His love which was “the most joyous to the soul” (1 Nephi 11:23). Happiness always was and always will be found in Jesus Christ.