The Holy Ghost Really Does Make Me Happy!
I have learned from President Thomas S Monson how to gain true happiness – the key is forget myself and serve someone else. For as I do, I feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. I love these statements from President Monson:
“I firmly believe, that the sweetest experience in mortality is to know that our Heavenly Father has worked through us to accomplish an objective in the life of another person.”
“The Smile of God’s approval is the greatest of all gifts.”
“Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family, friends, neighbors, and the woman who you hardly notice who cleans your office.”
“All can walk where Jesus walked when, with His words on our lips, His spirit in our hearts, and His teachings in our lives, we journey through mortality. I would hope that we would walk as he walked with confidence in the future, with an abiding faith in His Father, and with a genuine love for others.” (Heidi Swinton, To The Rescue, Deseret Book, 2010, 11)
President Monson passed away on January 2, 2018. His daughter, Ann Dibb, reported at his funeral, that since he had been incapacitated, his greatest joy came from the visits she helped him make to his friends who also were incapacitated. Each visit helped those visited to have joy for about a week and each visit lifted him. After all, such visits had been a pattern in his life since his service as a Bishop at age 22. Ann helped him make those visits until he died. He always forgot himself in serving others, just like his Saviour.
This ability of President Monson to put others ahead of himself was also illustrated very well by an interviewer who interviewed Heidi Swinton: the interviewer mentioned this comment from Pres. Henry B Eyring: “When he goes into a room (filled with people), he never looks for the camera.” To which Heidi added: “No, he looks for the individual the Lord wants him to lift. Sometimes he knows them, often he has never met them before.” This goes along with another comment Heidi quoted from him in her biography, “I am a very simple man, I just do what the Lord tells me to do.”
So, how does the Holy Ghost make me and you happy? He whispers “help someone else” and as we do we are filled with joy and peace, we are happy in ways that lift us and bless us forever. We realize the fulfillment of this scripture: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, one of Pres Monson’s favorites)
We also realize the truth of this Book of Mormon scripture: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” (Mosiah 2:17) The Holy Ghost is the member of the Godhead that ministers to us sharing God’s love and the love of Our Savior. Always that ministering makes us happy and at peace.
To show how opportunities to serve are all about us I will share the following experience from the life of Spencer W Kimball: “A young mother on an overnight flight with a two-year-old daughter was stranded by bad weather in Chicago airport without food or clean clothing for the child and without money. She was … pregnant and threatened with miscarriage, so she was under doctor’s instructions not to carry the child unless it was essential. Hour after hour she stood in one line after another, … No one offered to help with the soaked, hungry, exhausted child. “Then, the woman later reported, ‘someone came towards us and with a kindly smile said, “Is there something I could do to help you?” With a grateful sigh I accepted his offer. He lifted my sobbing little daughter from the cold floor and lovingly held her to him while he patted her gently on the back. He asked if she could chew a piece of gum. When she was settled down, he carried her with him and said something kindly to the others in the line ahead of me, about how I needed their help. They seemed to agree and then he went up to the ticket counter [at the front of the line] and made arrangements with the clerk for me to be put on a flight leaving shortly. He walked with us to a bench, where we chatted a moment, until he was assured that I would be fine. He went on his way. About a week later I saw a picture of Apostle Spencer W. Kimball and recognized him as the stranger in the airport.’” (Kimball & Kimball, Spencer W Kimball, 1977, 334)
In this world we are faced everyday with the choice to think only of self or to watch for ways to help someone else. Whenever we listen to the prompting (from the Holy Ghost) to help someone else we will feel the joy and peace that always accompany the Holy Ghost.
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