Entitled to Happiness?

Entitled to Happiness?

For whatever reason, I tend to get a topic stuck in my head and everything that happens for a period of time seems to reiterate that topic again and again. I don't know if that is just me and my one-track-minded self, or if others experience that same phenomenon.

So, last week I wrote about my experience in Primary and the curse of entitlement that is controlling much of our current and future generations' thoughts and actions. Yet again today, the senior primary kids showed me just how prevalent this curse is becoming. I also was able to see in my own life how I'm just as guilty as they are, and how important it is for me to be living my very best so that I can be more receptive to the Spirit and know what is most important to teach them.

I had prepared for singing time today by practicing some fun pioneer primary songs on the guitar. The junior primary did great and had a fun time singing and learning the songs. They seem to respond well to changes of pace that keep their short attention spans interested for longer.

Senior primary was shaping up to be a good experience as well, but they were a bit more obnoxious about the fun songs than the younger kids. It quickly got to the point where I knew that continuing on with the singing time as planned was not going to be an effective teaching tool. The kids were more interested in goofing off with their friends and classmates and being disrespectful of my time than really getting anything out of the experience.

I had a scripture come to mind that I shared with them. Alma 41:10 states that, "wickedness never was happiness." I embarked on a discussion of this verse, the history behind it and what it means for each of us today. We talked about how wickedness is not just the really bad people or really bad things we can do, but that it is anything that drives away the Spirit and prevents us from being truly happy. We talked about how our example affects others, especially how our bad example and poor choices can affect the Spirit's ability to influence others around us.

We also spent a little time talking about the first part of verse 10 where the wicked cannot be restored to a state of happiness in the resurrection. Our choices, even the small white lies or the occasional moments of irreverence, can lead us to not being able to be as receptive to the Holy Ghost; and thus will ultimately keep us from experiencing the kind of happiness that is beyond description.

Satan's efforts to fill our lives with counterfeit happinesses are so precise and so abundant that being able to tell the difference between excitement and joy is growing harder and harder to do. We are becoming so accustomed to the constancy of the counterfeits that we've started lowering our standards as to what we'll accept as a good time. I know. I'm definitely one who likes to not have to put too much effort into having a good time, even if that means putting up with some of the junk that gets woven into generally decent entertainment. The problem is that I know some of these things are stealing away my desires to put effort into the things that bring the most happiness. I truly believe that one of Satan's ultimate goals is to create enough distractions of innumerable variety that, by the time we realize what has happened, we've occupied our entire existence with things that have simply pacified and lulled us away into carnal security.

In other words, Satan is doing his best to convince us that we are entitled to happiness; and the worst part is that his version of happiness is one that will ultimately lead to our eternal misery. 1 Nephi 2:25 states that, "men are that they might have joy (emphasis added)." Joy of the nature and magnitude which the Lord describes is a possibility, not a right. We are invited to use our agency to discover that joy, but it can only be obtained through the pattern that God has shown.

It is my hope that you and I can fight through the mess of Satan's counterfeit happiness and secure for ourselves and our children a death grip on the joy set aside for the saints. And I mean death grip; for if we aren't willing to sacrifice everything, even our own lives if necessary, to find and hold onto that joy, then we'll be selling our inheritance for nothing more than a "mess of pottage."