Humility and Happiness

After the Savior humbly washed the apostles’ feet, He gave this commentary on what He had just done, “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).  It goes against the way that the world would view the attainment of happiness, but the message here from the Savior is that joy comes through humbly serving others as He had done to them.  We often speak of the need to serve in order to be happy—and surely we do—but we don’t often speak of the need to have humility as a prerequisite for happiness. 

               That happiness is connected to humility is confirmed in many other scriptures.  For example, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 29:19).  Those who are meek before the Lord will be given joy in Him.  Another example is found in the story of the sons of Mosiah in their fourteen-year service to the Lamanites.  They humbly gave up the chance to be king and instead chose to be servants and missionaries to the Lamanites, and the joy they received because of it was so intense that Ammon declared, “Now have we not reason to rejoice? 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).  When they then met back up with Alma at the end of these missionary labors, Ammon was again overcome with joy, and Mormon commented, “Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” (Alma 27:17-18).  It was, at least in part, his penitence and humility that led to Ammon’s overwhelming joy. 

               Others in the Book of Mormon also connected humility with joy in his famous discourse to his people.  King Benjamin encouraged his people to “always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility.” He promised that so doing would lead to great joy: “I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins” (Mosiah 4:11-12).  Jacob similarly connected humility with happiness, suggesting that those who don’t “consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility” are “hid from… that happiness which is prepared for the saints” (2 Nephi 9:42-43).  Humility was also at least part of the reason for the great joy of the righteous Nephites at the time of Helaman the son of Helaman: “They did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation” (Helaman 3:35).  Seeking to have humility is a key to finding happiness.