Happiness is ..

   In the past few years the phrase "Happiness is: this or that" 
   has become popular.  If one were to seriously ask me what I 
   thought happiness was what would I tell them?  I would have to 
   say "Happiness is loving God and following in his way of 
   righteousness and virtue."  If you asked an evangelical what he 
   thought happiness was he would say "Happiness is having Jesus 
   in your heart."  Can you reconcile these two viewpoints?  That 
   all depends on what the phrase "having Jesus in your heart" 
   means, what it entails and constitutes, how you define the 
   phrase.  If it means taking God seriously, following his 
   commandments, and living a life of moral principle, then 
   perhaps you can.  I believe happiness is love of God and always 
   living true to the highest that lies within you, living true to 
   your conscience and knowledge of Right.  I believe that from an 
   early age every person finds life like an obstacle course.  He 
   is constantly running into obstacles as he lives out his life.  
   At each obstacle he must make a decision.  He is faced with a 
   choice of either of two routes (or actions) and he must take 
   either one or the other.  One route is an easy route but it is 
   wrong and he knows it.  The other route is hard and requires a 
   lot of courage but it is the right route and he knows it.  
   Which route shall he take?  He must decide.  Each decision 
   involves doing what is right and in conformity with his 
   conscience or doing what is wrong and in opposition to his 
   conscience.  Each obstacle that we meet is a test for us.  Each 
   presents to us a temptation.  Each time we are faced with an 
   easy route and a hard route.  Each obstacle is a test to our 
   courage.  We can pick the way that requires courage or we can 
   take the way of cowardice.  

   Now it seems that people as a whole fall into two groups.  One 
   group is composed of those who, probably from an early age, 
   have developed the habit of always taking the hard and 
   courageous route of Right.  The other group is composed of 
   those who, probably from an early age, have developed the habit 
   of taking the easy, but cowardly, route of Wrong.  The first 
   group of people have Character, Honesty and Integrity.  The 
   other group doesn't.  Only a few of mankind belong to the first 
   group; the masses belong to the second group.