Helen Keller, blind and deaf from childhood, said, “Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.”
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, wrote, “There is no duty we undertake so much as the duty of being happy.”
Happiness is a choice, and it begins with you. Your situation does not really matter. Years ago I remember learning that people who are happy when they are single are also happy when married.
Inner sunshine shines all the time. Anyone can be cheerful when it seems like everything is going well. But happiness is rarely the result of good fortune.
Have you noticed that happy people come in all stripes? They are happy in all walks of life, all jobs, and all situations. Some people really have a rough life but they are still happy. I’ve been surprised in talking with some folks; their faces and their cheerful voices indicate that life is going really well. But sometimes after conversation, their cheerful face becomes even more amazing once you hear their story.
In my early years as a pastor, I learned how difficult some people’s lives were, and yet the problems and tragedies of their lives did not dictate the joyful state of their minds and hearts. I found that such courage and strength of character to choose to be happy was an amazing thing.
I made a decision back then. I was going to choose to be happy. I have my moments – but I am so thankful for my life, my past and of course my future. No guarantees for the future, but I still choose joy.
If you chose to be happy and joyful, you powerfully affect those around you. Happy people are always well-liked and admired. They communicate sunshine in times of storm. They are positive when surrounded by negativity.
There is strength in choosing to be happy, in choosing to radiate the sunshine of the SON. Nehemiah wrote, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” We have the Lord – we can be happy!
