Happiness

At church today, my dad was speaking on happiness. I always appreciate messages like that as people, in general, are very unhappy and that includes within Christianity. People often think of God as a cruel taskmaster that we must live as perfectly as we can in order to please, but He's nothing like that.

God wants us to be happy.

From the sermon, there are four hints to being happy -
1) Through the fear of God;
this doesn't mean being scared of Him but rather having respect for His authority, power, and holiness. As a society we have lost this fear.
2) By following His ways;
there is joy and peace when we follow God's will for our lives, when we choose to do as He asks us.
3) Through the fruit of our labour;
we should enjoy doing what we do now, even if it's not where we're always going to be. There is a joy that comes from working and being useful.
4) Through family;
close relationships with others can give us a joy that nothing else can. Whether we're single or married, there are other families we need to let ourselves be built into such as a church family.

The photo isn't really related but learning and being creative, such as when playing music, is a form of labour I suppose and is much more rewarding than merely consuming like we seem to do a lot these days.