Matthew 5:3,5,6 – Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor: the kingdom of heaven belongs to them! Happy are the meek: they will receive what God has promised! Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires: God will satisfy them fully!

A word of wisdom that no book can ever teach is how to be happy. The longer I live the more I realize that God wishes for us to be happy in life, to enjoy life and love life. Long years ago, Thomas Carlyle wrote, "The cheerful person will do more in the same time, will do it better, will persevere in it longer, than the sad or sullen person." We Christians are here to show the world how to live life and live it in all its fullness. One of my mentors, that is, one of those wise people in my life, Fred Beuchner, has written:

You have every right to be happy, no matter what. If other people are unhappy, you do the best you can for them –
that is a lot of what religion is about –
but you do not deny yourself happiness on their account. It does them no real good if you do. On the contrary. The happier you are able to be on the inside of your own skin –
happy in the sense of being at peace with yourself, of taking care of yourself, of giving and receiving the best of what it means to be human –
the better your chances are of making them a little happier too because there is no condition more contagious. So be happy for other people's sake as well as for your own sake. And if you believe in God, be happy for God's sake too because that is what God created you to be.

Prayer: As we live this day, our Lord, help us to fill its moments with the happiness that overflows from our relationship with Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Kenn Stright <kennethstright@yahoo.ca>
West Petpeswick, Nova Scotia, Canada
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