More Happiness, Less Busyness

Recently Jake and I decided to go to Logan to do an Endowment Session at the temple there. With the Ogden one closed and Brigham city not opened yet our options are Bountiful or Logan. But since we had never been to the Logan temple we decided to go there this time. Plus my little brother is up there at school now and he wanted to go with us. So we headed up. With big plans to hit the 7:00 session..uhhh yeah right. This place was PACKED! We got ready and were waiting and went into the waiting room for the session to start and we knew there was no way we were making it into that session. They took about half the room for that session and the rest of us were left for the 7:30 session. Now if you know me, you know I hate to wait. Hate it. I hate lines, I hate waiting in doctor’s offices, anywhere. The whole time I am there I am constantly thinking of the things that I could be getting done if I were not having to wait in that particular place. It’s terrible I know. So as you can imagine having to wait a whole half hour for the next session I was not thrilled…and as you can imagine all of the things that I didn’t get to finish in order to make it to the 7:00 session start running through my head. After about a minute of this I thought to myself how quiet and peaceful it was with the organ softly playing in the background and it clicked. How could I be upset about having to wait an extra 30 minutes in the temple?! What a blessing! Instantly my whole attitude was changed and I was grateful for that time. I decided to make the most of that half hour of peace, which any mother would know is hard to come by…so I pulled out one of the scripture that they have there and opened them. They opened right to Doctrine and Convenants section 108 and read this verse,

 “Therefore let your soul be at rest concerning your spiritual standing, and resist no more my voice. And arise up and be more careful henceforth in observing your vows, which you have made and do make, and you shall be blessed with exceeding great blessings.”

 I re-read those verses probably 2-3 times. I know so many days I am caught up in getting “my” stuff done that I put the important things, my vows and covenants that I made, at the very bottom of my to-do list. When if I would put those things first so many of the other things would fall into place…which in turn would make my life easier! If I would slow down and stop rushing through life I could hear the voice of the Lord more easily and in turn have more happiness and Joy. How often when you see an old friend does your conversation go a little like this

…

Friend: “Hey! How are you doing?!”

You: “good, but busy”

What kind of answer is that? “How are you?!” “Busy”. How sad is it that that is all we can say?  Recently in a conversation with my bishop we were talking about the endowment and different covenants that we make. We started talking about Adam and eve and the commandments that the Lord gives them in the Garden of Eden. One of these commandments is to have joy. It was as we were talking about this that my bishop said something that really hit me. He said that this commandment, to have joy, or to be happy, is probably the most broken commandment. Think about that. How often do we not allow ourselves to just be happy. That has to be the easiest commandment, yet it is the one a lot of people may struggle with the most. Isn’t it sad that a commandment as simple having joy in our life is so hard for us? In the book of Mormon Lehi teaches us that “men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25) I recently read a book by Elder Richard G. Scott called Peace, Happiness, and Joy. In it he talks about this scripture and says, “That is a conditional statement: “they might have joy.” But it is the intent of the Lord that each of us find joy. It will not be conditional for you as you obey the commandments, have faith in the Master, and do the things that are necessary to have joy here on earth.”

 So for us the important thing is to seek after things that give us joy. Like in the 13^th Article of faith “We believe…if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things” See?! So through all of my “research” on this topic I have concluded that We are commanded  to be happy, we are that we might  have joy, and we believe  in having joy. What a wonderful thing it is to be a member of a Church that essentially wants us to be happy and have joy. So that is my goal. To be happy, and to find joy in all aspects of my life. To not let “being busy” consume my life. To reply to a friend with, “happy” rather than “busy” when they ask me how I am. I hope we can all be a little less busy, and a little more happy J