Elements of Happiness | Donald N. Wright | 2000

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The gospel in our lives gives us as Saints the most reason to be happy with our lives even during difficult times.

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"It seems most appropriate that we should not pass this day without recognizing the remarkable gift given to us some 56 years ago today. It was on that day that Allied forces, some 175,000 strong, fought their way ashore in Normandy to begin the final phase of the worst worldwide conflict in recorded history. That generation of young men, living and born during the Great Depression, gave of themselves in a way we almost seem to have forgotten. These soldiers portrayed a selflessness so dramatic and powerful that journalist and author Tom Brokaw has represented them as “the greatest generation” in his biographical account of their lives. He wrote:

They left their ranches in Sully County, South Dakota, their jobs on the main street of Americus, Georgia, they gave up their place on the assembly lines in Detroit and in the ranks of Wall Street, they quit school or went from cap and gown directly into uniform. [Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 1998), xix]

Indeed, as the noted biographer/historian Stephen Ambrose wrote concerning these men who offered so much:

None of them wanted to be part of another war. They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22s at rabbits, not M-1s at other young men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were soldiers of democracy. They were the men of D-Day, and to them we owe our freedom. [Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 26]

And so we pause today to honor those of another generation, those who gave their service and even their lives so that we might have our generation and be privileged to worship God in deed as well as in our hearts.

That great war, as have others, broke upon the world as a result of man’s propensity for greed, lust for power, and absolute disregard for the lives and happiness of others.

Elder W. Eugene Hansen of the Presidency of the Seventy noted:

From the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been constantly searching for happiness. I believe it’s fair to say that most of us are influenced greatly in our daily lives by what we perceive will result in happiness or joy for ourselves, as well as for others. [W. Eugene Hansen, “The Search for Happiness,” Ensign,November 1993, 81]

And the Prophet Joseph Smith stated:

Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. [Teachings, 255–56]

This seems to be such a simple recipe, yet men and women, young and old, in and out of the gospel kingdom, appear to devote much of their time and energy toward obtaining this goal—seeking, always seeking, and seemingly never finding that grail of their quest.

As I have considered the paths leading so many to what was thought to bring happiness, I have come to realize that many, if not most, have simply been pursuing the wrong thing. Often the quest has been a relentless search, not for happiness, as they intend, but for a lesser state, even that of pleasure. For happiness is near unto joy and often far from pleasure. Though elements of pleasure may be and often are included as important components, these two experiences, pleasure and happiness, are neither synonyms nor even essential components of the other.

I am reminded of the experience of a young friend. He played a major role on his high school basketball team, a team that after a long season won the state basketball championship. After the celebrating, after the congratulations, he lay talking in the quiet of the night in his parents’ room.

He said, “You know, it just doesn’t get any better than this.”

To which his wise father replied, “That is not true. Just wait until you have the opportunity to serve a mission.”

Now, recently returned from two years of service in the mission field, he understands what his father meant. He has been able to separate the pleasure of winning an important athletic event from the happiness that attends significant service in the Lord’s kingdom..."