How "Happy" is Achieved!

"Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding;" (Proverbs 3:13 NKJV)

Many seek happiness in the presence of others, in amassing wealth, or in just doing for others--this
happiness is from extrinsic influence.

But intrinsic influence--begins with understanding how to be happy with self--whether others are around or not. And this is the result of operating with wisdom and understanding--inner peace and happiness.

How do we find wisdom? We ask of God who gives it liberally, without question or debasement.

How do we gain understanding? We gain understanding of how to live, by living--making mistakes, correcting them, and not repeating them.

No where in His Word does God say we will not make mistakes. It is not the mistakes we make that trouble Him; it is not learning from them that troubles Him and that--repeating mistakes and never learning from them--is what keeps us from being happy.

When children first learn to walk--they fall--after only taking a few steps, but the child who gets up and keeps trying succeeds and is very happy with their accomplishment (and so are the parents who watch them--sometimes agonizing over the falls, but knowing the child must do it by himself/herself).

When we as adults--having successfully navigated the phases of life--puberty, adolescence, young adulthood, however the phase is termed, make mistakes--most of us recognize them and seek to find means to correct so we won't have to suffer consequences of that mistake made. From this we learn how to achieve success. We keep trying until we get there.

Living a life in this world--without relationship with God--has consequences--some we won't like. Living to please God--with a relationship with Him--does not keep us from making mistakes; it helps us to recognize them sooner and keeps us in communication with Him so we can get it right.

When we honestly look at our lives and see that we are not happy, we need to assess our lives and see if we are operating in wisdom and getting understanding about how we live and what we do--that brings us results--we'd rather not have.

With wisdom and understanding, we can sing the popular song with zest, "Because I'm happy" and when we're happy, those around us cannot help but be infected by our happiness. Wisdom + Understanding = Happiness!