The only way to be completely happy is to Live the Gospel

This weekend for Christmas my husband and I have been at my sister's house.  This morning I was wandering around the house while everyone was at church (Yes, I missed church because I slept in and was lazy. My own fault.) and I found a notebook that my sister used while she lived in Wisconsin and was teaching the youth in her church.  She would write her Sunday school lessons in this notebook for reference while she taught her class.  Me being a snoop, I opened the notebook and started reading.  She had a lot of really great quotes, but a little notecard fell out of the notebook and caught my eye.  This is what it said:

"The only way to be completely happy is to live the Gospel of Christ. It isn't possible to sin enough, to entertain enough, to buy enough, or to indulge enough to be happy. You must live the gospel of Christ."

As I read this I started thinking about my life, and the times in my life that I have been "Truly Happy."  The quote held true for me.  

Throughout my life I have lived away from the church, and I have been a fully active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I have walked the fine line of sin and righteousness to see if you can really walk the line, and the fact is that you can't.  The truth of the matter is that you are either fully converted to the church; living it's gospels, or you're not.  A few years ago I had to make the distinct choice in my life to either live the Gospel fully, or not to.  This decision came when deciding to marry my husband.  I know I have stated this before, but when I chose to marry Dave I was not active. He let me know that he would not be married anywhere but in the temple of God, and he gave me the option of choosing to be with him, or continuing the life of "sin" that I was living.  (When I say sin I just mean that I wasn't living the principles and teachings of the church.)  When I finally made the decision that I was going to embark on this journey of being a "Mormon" I was terrified.  I had not lived the teachings of the Gospel since I was a little girl and frankly I was scared to change my life.  I made the leap though, took the appropriate steps, repented of the things I needed to repent of, stop doing the things that I needed to stop, and became a fully active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

That decision changed my life in the most dramatic way possible, which brings me back to the original quote my sister wrote down.  I experienced true joy, and pure happiness for the first time in my life by choosing to live the Gospel.  Not only did I find out who I truly was, and was always meant to be, but my life was good and I was truly happy.  I still had struggles, I still had problems that everyone has, but I was able to conquer them through the help of my Father in Heaven.  Even though I had trials and hard times (which I still do) I was truly happy.  It was amazing that I could go through some of the hardest times of my life and still be eternally happy and grateful for my life.  I know that this was only the case because I was living the Gospel principles.

"Happiness and joy only come when we are living up to who we are meant to be." -unknown

I'm so grateful that 5 years ago I made the decision to truly join the church and change my life around.  It has made all the difference.  I never knew what true happiness was until the church came into my life.  Now I feel as though I know what everyone is talking about when they say "I can get through anything as long as I have God on my side."

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and a beautiful Christmas.  May your days be merry and bright!!  Merry Christmas and have a very happy new year!

Love,

Jilly 

(The Mormon Housewife)