This thing called Happiness

The smiling faces that make me happy!

Happiness...  It's an ever changing feeling. I have been thinking about this word alot this week.  What makes my kids happy, what makes my husband happy, what makes my friends and family happy.  Happiness is a state of mind.  You can have it one minute and lose it in an instant.  Time, circumstances, people and places all play a role in this feeling we call happiness.  The birth of a child, the change of a job, the time spent with people we love.  All of these things trigger these feelings. 

As a perpetual people pleaser I tend to over think this very thing.  I rush to cuddle my one year old when he falls flat on the floor from running too fast on his chubby legs.  I LOVE to send money to school with Maddy so she can order her lunch like all the rest of her friends. And yes, I will watch Cars five times a day when my Travis is not feeling well.  I do and feel this way because the happiness of my family is something that I treasure and covet all at the same time.


I have been struggling lately with some things I cannot fix.... It hurts when I can't help.  It hurts when no matter what I do, I can't get a smile.. Some things can only change with time and prayer. Handing it over to God is all that we can do in all situations, a lesson I need to learn.  I was reading and came across this verse today and it totally struck a chord. Ecclesiastes 7:14 says, "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other."  The other day I was talking to a dear friend and she reminded me that we go through the fire to be refined.  When we come out on the other end of it, the "junk" is burned away and what is left is those things that are pleasing to the Lord.  Instead of being a "people pleaser" I should be working on doing what is pleasing to my God.  What an "aha" moment!!