I want to be happy. I don’t think that is an unreasonable wish. It’s just a bummer that  I am always looking for it in the wrong places.

If we make a certain amount of money, then I won’t have to worry about bills and I can be happy. If I can get all the rooms in my house cleaned up at the same time, then I will be much less stressed and be happy. If I can have a baby, get out of debt, loose a few pounds, be super consistent in my devotions, and buy a new pair of shoes every now and again, then I will be happy.

But I know better, at least my head does. But my heart is slow at catching on.

What is the secret of a woman’s contentment and the mystery of happiness in all things? It’s actually just. One. Thing. One thing that bleeds into every area of life.

CHRIST

I was created by him and for him. I was redeemed by his blood. I am sustained by his power. Everything hinges on Jesus and it is no different with my happiness.

Yet joy is often lacking, and I am tempted to believe that deep seated happiness isn’t possible.  I only believe this when I don’t believe that Jesus is all I need.

I live as though everything in my life has been given to me by God for my happiness and comfort but I have it  backwards. Everything in my life has been placed there so that I can glorify God and find satisfaction in him, and that is where joy is found.

Jesus should be my most prized treasure and my constant confidant. He should be my the shelter I run to when the winds whip wildly. He is the first person I should thank and the last person on my mind as I drift to sleep. His salvation is the thing that has been given to me for true and forever happiness.

Worldly delights are winged. They may be compared to a flock of birds in the garden—which stay a little while—but when you come near to them—they take their flight and are gone! Thomas Watson

All those other things in my life; my marriage, my kids, my “things”, my friends, my emotions, my sufferings, my health, the totality of my life is there so that I can be conformed to the image of Jesus. To prepare myself of the coming of my bridegroom, to be ready to glorify God in heaven for all eternity.

   for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  Revelation 19:7   

The hunt for happiness is concluded in Jesus. It is found when he becomes the center of every other thing .

Christ at the marriage altar;
Christ on the bridal journey;
Christ when the new home is set up;
Christ when the baby is born;
Christ when a child dies;
Christ in the pinching times;
Christ in the days of plenty;
Christ in the nursery, in the kitchen, in the parlor;
Christ in the toil and in the rest;
Christ along all the years.
Christ in death
J.R. Miller

Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Psalm 144:15