There is a cute little song from the musical “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” with a catchy tune and a sweet message. The song is called “Happiness Is” and the lyrics suggest that happiness is found in simple things like:
Happiness is finding a pencil.
Pizza with sausage.
Telling time;
Happiness is learning to whistle.
Tying your shoe for the very first time.
Happiness is playing the drum in your own school band.
Happiness is walking hand in hand.
Happiness is two kinds of ice cream.
Knowing a secret.
Climbing a tree.
Happiness is five different crayons.
Catching a firefly.
Setting him free.
Happiness is having a sister.
Sharing a sandwich.
Getting along.
Happiness is singing together when day is through.
And happiness is those who sing with you.
Now, my young brothers and sisters, may I ask, what is happiness to you?
Are you happy? You know the camp song we sing:
If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands
If you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet
If you’re happy and you know it then your face will surely show it
You look to me like a happy group of young people not like the missionary group President Hinckley spoke to one time when he said “You all look like you’ve been sucking on pickles!”
Those who authored the Declaration of Independence declared that everyone is entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Isn’t happiness part of what you are looking for here at BYU–Idaho? That’s a worthy pursuit and in light of the importance of happiness in our lives I’d like to explore some areas that are guaranteed to provide happiness for you today and on into your very bright future.
First, happiness is excellence in your educational pursuits.
As a student, if you want to be happy with your collegiate life, the most important thing you must do is commit yourself to being excellent in your academics; do your best; work hard at it; give the effort required to be an excellent student. Whenever I think of excellence I remember a story that Sister Marjorie Hinckley liked to tell about a young girl who lost her parents when she was very young:
“She had been raised by her grandmother, who for some reason or other never bothered to tell her anything much about her mother. One day, when my friend was in her teens, she was going through some papers in her grandmother’s house, and she ran across a report card of her mother’s from grade school. At the bottom of the card in a space labeled “remarks” the teacher had written: “Excellent in every way.”
“This young woman clasped the card to her chest and waltzed around the room saying, “my mother was excellent. My mother was excellent in every way!” It’s all she ever knew about her mother, but it inspired her the rest of her life. It does matter, my dear young friends, that you are excellent in every way. It matters.”[1]
In addition to this example from Sister Hinckley we have all heard our Prophet, President Hinckley advice us to “do your best, your very best.” We would do well to follow their advice to be excellent and to do you best, your very best in all your classes. Don’t shortchange yourself by just getting by, being slouchy in completion of assignments or preparing for exams.
Of course, each professor is going to think that his is the ONLY class you are taking. It has always been a fact of university life. So join the club! As you set aside time each day for studies, consider each class you study for as the most important class you have, at least for that study period.
Get acquainted with your professors. These well educated and dedicated men and women have so much to offer you. Fall in love with the subject he or she teaches. They say of a person, “to know him is to love him.” Perhaps that same philosophy could be said of the subjects you study. To know history is to love history. To know chemistry is to love chemistry!
One sure fire formula for achieving success in your academics is to do what my very smart and brilliant husband did as a college student. Would you like me to share his secrets to academic success with you? He made it a practice to get up by 6:00 or 6:30 on Saturday mornings and begin studying . He could put in a good 5 hours by 11:00. He reports that it was the best and most alert 5 hours of his day. By the time his roommates and other college students were rolling out of bed, he had finished his studies and was ready to go play with them. Of course it was necessary for him to be home early from his date on Friday night so he could get up early on Saturday, which got me home early too! I remember when we were dating that he’d just all of a sudden look at his watch and say, “Well, I gotta go now.” And off he’d go. It left me wondering about this fellow and wanting to know more. Not a bad strategy, on both counts – academically and socially!
Then on Sunday he attended his meetings and fulfilled his callings and decided as his own personal choice that he wouldn’t study on Sundays. And he never did. But on Monday he got up again at 6:00 a.m. and studied hard in the early morning hours until his first class. Each weekday he studied a normal amount and hung out at the library with his friends. But the tipping point for his grade point was the early Saturday and Monday morning sessions.
So that was his secret weapon and it served him well. After attending BYU–I he graduated from BYU. He then received a Harvard MBA (President Clark) and then a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley which meant he had finally graduated from the 22nd grade. Now you know his secret!
In addition to your formal classes, your education can be so greatly enhanced as you participate in extracurricular activities, especially here, where rich opportunities are readily available and encouraged. They are an important facet of your education.
One of your fellow students sent us an email outlining some of his educational and extracurricular activities this year.
“I am staying very busy with my classes… and also with all of the performing groups I am participating in. We will be going on a High School tour in Idaho in two weeks, singing and doing workshops in western Idaho. Also the Sacred Music Series will be performed this year…. It will go on tour to Logan, Utah and the Salt Lake area towards the end of March. I found out today that I will have the lead role in Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus,” as The Baron Eisenstein. I am very excited to work in my first opera ever, and very excited to work along side such amazing singers and faculty members as found here at BYU–I. The weather is cold…. But the spirit that permeates the atmosphere here is addicting, and I would not want to be anywhere else.”
You can see that in his pursuit of excellence his full schedule keeps him learning and happy! And, besides enhancing his educational goals, this young man will no doubt meet other students with his same interests, and I’m sure they will form friendships and have some memorable times together! Go to the opera – see him perform and be inspired to develop your own interest and talents. Which brings me to my second point:
Happiness is learning to get along socially.
Have you ever heard the song that says, “People who need people are the happiest people in the world.” This world is full of people – 300 million in the United States alone. My friend Eric from China who is here today is one of 1.3 billion people who live in his country. It is the world’s largest and most populous country. Living in isolation in this world is nearly impossible. It’s probably not very psychologically healthy and it’s certainly no fun! We need each other. No man is an island. You are going to interact with people of all different cultures, beliefs and personalities now while in college and in the years ahead, so it is important to figure out how to get along with other people.
Get to know your roommates, really know them. Learn to care about them and discover what you can do to brighten their day. It might not be anything big, but just to pay a sincere compliment to someone could go a long way in helping them have a really good day.
Have you ever thought about fixing your roommate’s favorite food for dinner one day when it’s your turn to cook? You do have your meals together as roommates or dinner groups, don’t you? If not, you may want to investigate this outstanding practice as a way to make friends and save money as a bonus!
Or perhaps you could make a bed, leave a note, share a smile, a wink, a handshake, a hug, say “hi” as you pass on campus. The idea is to do something nice for someone every day. It’s great exercise for the heart!
There is a young man I greatly admire who has a practice of always saying “What can I do for you?” And you’d be surprised how often someone tells him! And he cheerfully responds with the help!
To stay on track socially, keep in mind the little rule of thumb, “Always do and always say the kindest thing in the kindest way.” And then do you remember Thumper from the movie Bambi? Remember this piece of wisdom that he said in his cute way: “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all?” Oh you can’t find those exact words in the New Testament but surely they are included in what we call the golden rule found in Matthew “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them….”[2]
Brothers and Sisters, the day will come when the social skills you are practicing today will serve you well. You will be grateful you have learned to relate well with people as you are interviewing for a job, or doing a business deal, or working with your child’s school teacher, or the PTA, or the condo association, or your banker. Good social skills pave the way for effective working relationships in your church callings.
People like people whom they can trust. They like people who exhibit strength of character. So be good. Be nice. Be thankful and friendly and helpful. This sounds so simplistic and it really is. Social skills are not complicated and these social skills will bless your life and the lives of countless others forever.
Third, Happiness is having fun!
That sounds a little frivolous, doesn’t it?! But this is a good time in your life to have the right kind of fun as well as to work hard. You will make some happy memories as you do so. You just have to remember to not let having fun take over your life! Keep the proper balance! The Proclamation on the Family suggests that we should enjoy wholesome recreational activities. So, have fun in a clean, good way, in a way that you can feel the spirit.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “When I do good I feel good; when I do bad I feel bad.” Always do things that make you feel good, feel worthy, feel happy and uplifted as opposed to ashamed, guilty or worried.
Fun activities can have a positive effect in your life. As an example of this I would like to tell you about a wonderful mission president and his darling wife I met while I was on was on a church assignment in Argentina. I had occasion to ask him how he came to join the church. He told me that as a teenager, one day he was with some friends looking for something to do. They invited him to come to a church dance with them that night. So he did. He said, “I loved the way everyone treated me. I loved the music they played. I loved the way I felt while I was there.” So he asked his friends if he could come to church with them the next day and they happily agreed to take him. He had those same kinds of feelings when he was at church. By the way, that teaches the principle that the spirit can be felt when we are participating in good, wholesome recreation as well as in the reverence of a church meeting. Remember the thought “when I do good, I feel good.” Well, one thing led to another and he was taught the gospel, joined the church and soon went on a mission. When he returned from his mission he began going to institute and young adult activities where he met the lovely young woman who became his wife. They were married in the temple and in due time had their first baby. With reverence in his voice he said “When it was time for that baby to receive a name and a blessing, I could do it because I held the Priesthood. That day I was so thankful for the great blessing of the Priesthood. When it was time for the child to be baptized he, of course was able to baptize and confirm the child because, and he said it with awe, I held the priesthood.
The years passed and he continued to faithfully serve where called in the church, always thankful for the blessings his membership brought. Then he told me, “When my child was ready to receive a patriarchal blessing, I was serving as the Stake Patriarch and I was able to give the blessing to my own child. Time went on and so did his service in the church and then the day came when his child was ready to be married in the Temple of the Lord. At that time he was serving as a sealer in the temple and had the humbling privilege of performing the eternal marriage ordinance for his own child.”
He was overwhelmed with the blessings that had come into his life because he had gone to a church activity to have fun, where he felt the spirit of the Lord. “But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”[3]
The fourth point is:
True happiness is found in being virtuous.
One of my favorite scriptures comes to us as a principle with a promise and it is so powerful. Just listen to this: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly.” (the principle) Now the promise: “Then shall thy confidence wax strong before God.” Of all the requirements for happiness we’ve discussed today, I think virtue is the most personally powerful.
Can you imagine yourself beholding a new baby fresh from heaven as you hold it in your arms? Imagine what it would be like to look at that tiny brand new life and realize that that baby is your child.
When that time comes to you, what a blessing it will be to know that with the birth of this infant you have entered into a partnership with God to lead and guide one of beloved His spirit children. What a blessing it will then be to you, to know that in this partnership with heaven you can have complete confidence before God that you are a worthy, virtuous partner in whom He can place His trust. That feeling is worth everything. Everything.
That feeling of pure happiness is worth giving up every worldly temptation to feel. At that moment you will know that it was worth it to turn completely away from anything that looked or sounded filthy, sleazy or pornographic, or anything that aroused unworthy thoughts to come to you. It was worth it to speak in modest, refined tones and language. It was worth it to behave in modest worthy ways in every way, never betraying the best that is in you, never tossing aside the warnings of prophets, regarding your personal, private comportment; but behaving always as a cherished, beloved daughter or son of your Heavenly Father. It was worth it to set a pattern for your life that is virtuous in every way.
On that day when you hold your newborn child close to your heart you can have confidence that you will be guided by God himself, because you are worthy of that guidance. You will know that keeping your covenants with exactness in every way has brought you to the feelings of exquisite joy welling up inside your heart.
On the day you become a mother or a father you will be oh so grateful that you didn’t procrastinate the day of your repentance when that was necessary but you did those things required to partake of the Savior’s redeeming, forgiving, cleansing power. It was worth all the pain and sorrow that it takes to truly repent in order to be on the threshold of a new life knowing that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…”[4] And the additional promise that “he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I the Lord remember them no more.”[5]
It is worth everything in this world to be known as a man or a woman of strong character; a person of complete integrity. Go forward from this moment on to let virtue garnish your thoughts unceasingly so that your confidence will wax strong before God. When you have confidence in standing before God, it will be easy to have confidence before the whole world.
In a general conference address Apostle M. Russell Ballard shared with us an experience of his grandfather, who was also an apostle, Elder Melvin J. Ballard. I would like to share that experience with you today to give you a feeling of what it is like to have confidence before God.
Elder Melvin J. Ballard shared this in the testimony that he bore to the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve in 1919, the day he was ordained an apostle:
He said that during the course of an assignment:
“Many questions arose that we had to settle. There was no precedent for us to follow, and we just had to go to the Lord and tell Him our troubles and get inspiration and help from Him. On this occasion I had sought the Lord,…and that night I received a wonderful manifestation and impression which has never left me….I saw myself here with you in an upper room of the temple. I was told there was another privilege that was to be mine; and I was led into a room where I was informed I was to meet someone. As I entered the room I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious being I have ever conceived of, and was taken forward to be introduced to Him. As I approached He smiled, called my name, and stretched out His hands toward me. If I live to be a mission years old I shall never forget that smile. He put His arms around me and kissed me, as He took me into His bosom, and he blessed me until my whole being was thrilled. As he finished I fell at His feet, and there saw the marks of the nails; and as kissed them, with deep joy swelling through my whole being, I felt that I was in heaven indeed. The feeling that came to my heart then was: Oh! if I could live worthy, so that in the end when I have finished I could go into His presence and receive the feeling that I had then in His presence, I would give everything that I am or ever hope to be!”
Oh dear young friends, be virtuous, live worthy to stand with confidence before the Lord who loves you so very much.
Those who truly understand the plan of our Heavenly Father for His children are the ones who can enjoy the greatest happiness this life has to offer. So my last point today is:
Happiness is understanding God’s plan for you.
Let me ask with the poet Ora Pate Stewart, “Do you know who you are little child of mine so precious and dear to me? Do you know you’re a part of a great design that is vast as Eternity?”
We have a little four year old granddaughter named Grace who was born with her twin sister Emma at 27 weeks into the pregnancy. She didn’t weigh very much but that wasn’t her main problem. She didn’t have a discernable heartbeat for the first 25 minutes after her birth. There was no sign of life. But the Dr. didn’t give up and he finally got her heart beating. Then the long road to coming alive was ahead. There were brain bleeds, lung problems, heart problems, liver problems and she was attached to every tube and monitor you can imagine. It was uphill all the way for little Grace. Her twin sister Emma had an easier time.
It was a week before Grace could even be held, but finally the day came when the intensive care nurse placed tiny Grace in her Daddy’s arms for the first time. As he cuddled the tiny infant close to him, he looked down tenderly in her face and began to softly sing “I am a child of God and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear…” The soft melody lingered on the air as he looked into the face of tiny Grace. He saw her eyelids faintly flutter and then, for the first time in her life, she opened her eyes! And she looked up at her daddy. It was as if the words he sang stirred a sweet memory of the truths she had been taught in heaven before her birth. Yes, she was a child of God and He had sent her here!
From that moment on she fought to live and her story is one filled with miracles and faith. Her name is Grace but we like to call her “Amazing Grace”.
Indeed, we truly are daughters and sons of God who loves us and He has a plan for us.
This life isn’t the first time we were taught our Heavenly Father’s plan. We learned of it, even chose it, in our pre mortal existence. Listen to this from the D&C: “Even before they were born, they with may others received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord….”[6] President Gordon B. Hinckley echoed that when he said: “Never forget that you were chosen and brought to earth as a child of God for something of importance in His grand design. He expects marvelous things of you.”[7]
And so we came to earth to prove ourselves by meeting the experiences this life has to offer, the trials, the temptations, even the sorrows. And we have a Savior who loves us so much that He promised to come before us to the earth to have the same experiences and to show us the way to live we’re while here… to set the example.
He made it possible to return again to live with our Father in Heaven one day through his priceless and holy gift of the atonement whereby we could be resurrected to immortality and enjoy the blessings of eternal life if we but repent and let him forgive us.
When he left his mortal ministry on earth he didn’t leave us alone, he left us with a comforter. He said “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever;..."[8] You have been baptized and confirmed and thereby blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost to be your constant companion as you worthily seek that companionship.
The Savior not only provided the example, and the atonement but a promise that he would also carry our sorrows and burdens when they seemed too heavy to carry alone. Alma records “And He shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind;… he will take upon him the pains and the sickness of his people.”[9] What a loving generous plan. And it is God’s gift to you. All the contingencies have been covered by our Creator and our Savior. I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me -- and you.
We are most blessed to have this understanding. And That, my friends, That is What Happiness Is!
May the knowledge of how blessed you are bring you great happiness and encouragement. May you be happy because you excel in your studies. May you find great joy in your social interactions. May your determination to live virtuously bring its own sweet rewards into your life. And may you come to really understand and embrace our Heavenly Father’s plan for you for it is truly The Great Plan of Happiness. Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] Glimpses Into the Life of Marjory Pay Hinckley, pp. 230-31
[2] Matthew 7:12
[3] Moroni 7: 13
[4] Isaiah 1:18
[5] D&C 58:42
[6] D&C 138:56
[7] Youth, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley p. 721
[8] John 14:16-18
[9] Alma 7:11