Your Personal Search for Happiness

President Henry B. Erying started his conference talk in October 2019 saying, “I have prayed for the power to help you in your personal search for happiness.” How amazing is that? We received a talk from him that day that will help guide us in our personal search for happiness!

As I read his talk this past week, my heart was just filled with hope! I have been writing about the plan of salvation throughout the month of June, so this talk just topped it off nicely!

Elder Erying talks about Alma, the Elder, teaching his son Alma that “increasing in holiness was the ONLY path to happiness.”

So how do we increase in holiness? We must do what is needed.

He tells us how. We must use the atonement of Jesus Christ through the following:

• Having faith in Jesus Christ
• Applying continual repentance
• Keeping our covenants

Then we can “claim the lasting happiness we all yearn to experience and retain”.

There is so much sorrow, fear, despondency, anger, frustration, misunderstanding in our world. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more happiness? More peace? More joy? It possible as we strive to be more disciplined in our daily efforts to follow Jesus Christ– to increase in holiness.

Elder Eyring didn’t say have faith like your neighbor, repent like your mom, or keep someone else’s covenants. This is a PERSONAL quest for happiness, peace, and joy. This is a conversation between each of us and God. Just as each flower is different, each of us is different. Our weakness are complimented by others strengths. I can say with confidence– He is so very patient with our efforts to do the best we can. You are doing the best you can in each moment.

In my recent blog post, How to Gain an Unbreakable Faith in Christ, we begin to change with tiny habits. If you are struggling with your faith, just start with reading the Book of Mormon for one minute a day. You can do this! It will make a huge difference over time…and over time one minute will become many minutes. Maybe it’s been awhile since you’ve really talked to Heavenly Father about how you’re doing keeping the commandments. Maybe you’re feeling nervous that you won’t be heard or feel loved. Those thoughts right there are Satan. He will try and stop you from praying with everything he’s got. Do you know why? Because he knows Heavenly Father will pour out His love to you! He will guide you! He will help you feel confident that you are a Child of God. He will tell you that He believes in you.

I went for a good amount of time as a young mom without praying daily. My anxiety, OCD, perfectionism thoughts held me captive in the thought that I was screwing up so much every day as a wife and mother that Heavenly Father was sick of hearing me saying “I’ll do better tomorrow”. I thought perhaps by not praying, I was able to avoid discussing my failings.

Avoidance is a reaction that people with anxiety employ a lot. We avoid things that worry us, make us nervous, things we don’t understand, dealing with our mistakes, etc. This behavior didn’t help me feel peace or happiness. Only more anxious.

Sometimes changing feels totally overwhelming and we just stop. It’s hard. We must remember that we don’t walk the path to change alone– only if we choose to. Jesus will help us if we desire Him to do so. And there are so many who testify of this, like Nephi. He said, “For the Lord God will help me”. He helped Nephi all along the way. Was Nephi’s life easy and carefree? Not even close. We must draw strength from President Nelson’s beautiful promise…

President Nelson said recently, “What will happen as you more intentionally hear, hearken, and heed what the Savior has said and what He is saying now through His prophets? I promise that you will be blessed with additional power to deal with temptation, struggles, and weakness. I promise miracles in your marriage, family relationships, and daily work. And I promise that your capacity to feel joy will increase even if turbulence increases in your life.”

President Eyring tells us that greater happiness comes from greater personal holiness and that we must act on that belief.

Just like little children, rewards seem to greatly increase their desire to finish chores, to learn how to use the potty, to finish their homework. I like rewards still as an adult. The Savior’s prophet and apostles have listed AMAZING rewards. Let’s focus on those when it seems hard to follow through on increasing our Faith in Christ, consistent repentance, and keeping our covenants. Let Heavenly Father’s voice remind you how much He loves you. Hone in on that voice. Block out all the others.

And watch the joy, happiness, and peace increase even amidst turbulence. Elder Erying talks about Job as an example of this. He said, “Then Job lost his wealth, his family, and even his health. You might remember that Job doubted that his greater holiness, gained through greater adversity, had qualified him for greater happiness. It seemed to Job that greater holiness had brought misery….Yet the Lord gave Job the same correcting lesson as Joseph Smith{when he was imprisoned}. He let Job see his heartbreaking situation with spiritual eyes.”

Taking time to pause from all the hustle and bustle of our day to let our spiritual eyes open, can bring the understanding, strength, and peace we need to keep going, even if only for that day. There were many, many days, when I was mourning the loss of yet another baby that it was so hard to keep being wife, mom, fulfilling my calling, etc. I had no other way to make it daily except to rely on my Heavenly Father to provide that strength. And He often did that through the kindness of others.

This blog post is longer than I originally intended. I hope that you made it through! I guess what I really want say is that it’s worth the effort. And as we take tiny steps, we will increase in holiness. We will see with our spiritual eyes the miracles in our life that God provides as we keep our covenants and promises to Him. We will gain happiness and retain it. Don’t give up. Don’t listen to the voices calling you away from God. True happiness is only found by staying on the path God has set forth.

Today there is a reason to hope.