"Stooop!You don't always have to sing at the top of your lungs! You're annoying me!"
"You're disgusting me! Chew with your mouth closed!"
"I can't do my jobs because he hasn't finished his!"
"You're making me so frustrated!"
"Just stop arguing! Your just making me more angry!"
"She makes me so mad! She doesn't know how to treat others."
"It's all his fault! Now I feel really sad."
"You guys are stressing me out! Be quiet!"
"She keeps leaving me out and making me feel unwanted."
"He keeps ignoring me and making me feel worthless."
Does any of this sound familiar or relatable?
There are countless ways to blame others for how we feel, but is this right? Are any of these accusations even accurate?
Considering the fact that WE CHOOSE HOW WE FEEL, no. It is impossible for anyone else to make us feel any emotion. We DECIDE who and what we will let effect us.
It's the natural law of agency. If we were forced to feel a certain ways according to the actions of others, agency would become void, and our ability to decide things for ourselves wouldn't exist.
Now, I'm not saying that what others do doesn't have a profound EFFECT on what we feel, it can -if we let it. Sometimes it seems hard, and even at times impossible, not to let it. If someone that you trusted came up to you and said "You know, I have to tell you the truth. You are absolutely hideous." It might feel like you have no other choice but to be sad! But, even though that person made it harder for you to feel happy, that doesn't mean they made it impossible. You still have the choice to forgive and not let them determine who you really are.
You decide.
Your true happiness is a decision between obedience and disobedience. Love, or hate. Service, or selfishness. Christ or Satan. Commandment's or rebellion.
2Nephi 2:27
Wherefore, men are afree according to the bflesh; and call things are dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to echoose fliberty and eternal glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be hmiserable like unto himself.
Now, you might think, if happiness was really a choice, couldn't we choose to be happy even if we weren't keeping the commandments? Well, if you went and murdered someone, would would it be possible to feel good? (TRULY good?) Or have you ever disobeyed your parents and found a sense of explicit joy? (TRUE joy?) Or have you ever failed to love your neighbor and said something hurtful and felt cheerful afterward? (REALLY cheerful?) Or have you ever decided to go on google+ instead of putting the Lord first and getting your priorities done, and afterward felt free? (REALLY free?) Or have you ever decided to listen to music that was not uplifting and felt spiritually enlightened? (TRUELY spiritually enlightened?) Now, in answer to some of these questions, sometimes at first we get a sense of 'pleasure' but that is not true joy. It comes from Satan and it wares down after a while, leaving you feeling even emptier than before.
The commandments are a basic moral code for happy living. They are natural laws with an unbreakable link of joyful outcomes.
"But I keep the commandments! I live the gospel!" You say. "And sometimes I still get sad!"
That is true, But in those sad moments, who are you thinking about? Is it a selfish self pity or stressful worry? If so, those feelings you know don't come from God, and you can repent.
But sometimes we get sad merely because of our love for another who has gone astray. That is not a selfish sadness. I think God feels like that sometimes when we refuse to come unto Him because He loves us. God always has love and peace. If you don't feel peace, you need to trust the Lord.
Sometimes we are just experiencing a trial that we need to go through for our spiritual progression.
Remember, if we didn't ever experience sadness, we wouldn't even know what happiness was!
If you are truly living the gospel, I believe you will have true joy. You will have peace.
Living the gospel requires living the spirit of the law also. You could look at the Pharisees and say they kept the kept the commandments -they lived the law of Moses to a pin! And yet, they didn't seem to really be happy. They were always complaining and accusing people who didn't do "what was right" in their eyes. They didn't live the true spirit of the Gospel.
3Nephi 12:
44 But behold I say unto you, love your aenemies, bless them that curse you, do bgood to them that hate you, and cpray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise aon the evil and on the good.
46 Therefore those things which were of old time, which were under the law, in me are all afulfilled.
48 Therefore I would that ye should be aperfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.
And we know that the Lord doesn't command anything that we can't accomplish, so it is possible! We get to become perfect as long as we are trying! (The atonement enables us and makes up for our lack if we choose to accept it.)
Choosing to live this 'higher law" I believe will bring you true joy and perfection.
It's called the "Great plan of Happiness" after all!
I think it's easy to forget sometimes that the commandments are really all there for our freedom and benefit. They aren't restricting in any way! They aren't just a bunch of 'rules' that we have to follow just because, or just because we want to escape eternal damnation. They will help with that, but there's so much more to them! We don't have to follow them. We could choose not to, but we wouldn't be as free or as happy or as full of peace as we would if we did.
Decide to be grateful! Thank God for the wonderful knowledge we have of this amazing Gospel that gives us wonderful guidelines to find true happiness!
Gratitude is an amazing tool in helping us choose to be happy. When we are thankful, we are showing God appreciation for all He has given us, and showing appreciation is an outcome of someone who is joyful.
Dieter F. Uchtdorf said:
"It is my prayer that you will experience a renewed and an expanded measure of the beautiful love of God in your lives; that you will find the faith, determination, and commitment to learn God’s commandments, treasure them in your hearts, and live the gospel joyful."
The gospel is really such a joyful thing. We have the marvelous choice to treasure it in our hearts as we decide to live it and glow with the resilience of God's love.
I love how you said this: "The commandments are a basic moral code for happy living. They are natural laws with an unbreakable link of joyful outcomes." That is a really cool way to put it. This is a really insightful post!
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