A Plan of Happiness – April 07, 2002
Life has purpose. A loving Heavenly Father didn’t send His children to earth without providing a plan for their happiness. We can find the joy and peace that God intended for us if we “pursue the path that leads to it.”1
All too often, however, we’re like the child who can’t find the next number on a difficult dot-to-dot puzzle. Sometimes we lack knowledge or need assistance to proceed. Perhaps we’re looking for a shortcut. We might have a different picture in mind. We may even refuse to move forward.
Through the ages, God has outlined how we should live, but He will not force us along. Finding happiness in life requires both humble submission to God’s plan and willingness to follow it. As we willingly follow His plan, life’s purpose unfolds for our view. We see how challenges can shape us into the better person God knows we can become.
Facing one of those challenges, a worried mother wiped away frightened tears as she drove to meet her son. She’d been notified he was injured and en route to the hospital. Praying fervently for his well-being, the mother felt no comfort until she changed the tone of her prayer. “Thy will be done,” she whispered. Striving to align her desires with God’s, she was able to calm down and think of how best to help her son.
When we humbly accept God’s will and follow His plan, He blesses us with the happiness we seek. We come to recognize His hand in our lives and, as the ancient prophet Isaiah told us, “[our] ears shall hear a word behind [us], saying, this is the way, walk ye in it.”2
Program #3790
1. Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), 255.
2. Isaiah 30:21.