The Secret to Happiness

In the most recent general conference President Uchtdorf said this, “In the Book of Mormon we learn of a people who had discovered the secret to happiness.  For generations, ‘there was no contention. … And surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.’  How did they do it?  ‘Because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people’ (see here).  The scriptures provide many insights into where happiness and joy come from, and I think they all come back to this principle that happiness is rooted in the love of God, love that we both feel for Him and love that we feel from Him.        

                   Love is the theme that ties together many different examples of happiness in the scriptures.  In the Book of Mormon we see that Alma had his “soul filled with joy” because of the great love he had for those that he taught who repented and came “to the Lord their God” (Alma 29:10).  Similarly Ammon exclaimed, “Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God” (Alma 26:35).  It was his great love for those people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi who changed their lives that brought this great happiness to him.  In our dispensation the Lord put it this way: “And if it so be that you should 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!” (D&C 18:15)  Missionary work brings happiness because of the great love that we feel for those who repent and come unto Christ.  Similarly, Christ taught His apostles that happiness comes from service.  After He washed their feet, He said to them, “For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:15-17).  So service is a key to happiness, and what is service if not love in action?  Another principle we see repeated in the scriptures about happiness is that it is associated with children.  Lehi taught about the condition of Adam and Eve if they had not partaken of the fruit: “And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin” (2 Nephi 2:23).  Eve put it this way after she and Adam were cast out and started having children: “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” (Moses 5:11).  The Psalmist similarly said, “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them” (Psalms 127:3-5).  Great joy can come because of children, and at the root this is because of the incredible love that parents feel for children as they nourish and teach and care for them.

Ultimately all true joy is rooted in love, and that love is a shadow of the great love that our Father and Heaven and His Son have for each of us.  When Jesus was among the Nephites, the people recorded this, “And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:17).  The people’s joy was so great because of the transcendent love that they felt from the Savior.  If we want true joy in our lives it will come as we both seek to feel that love from God and seek to develop it for all of His children around us.