Community Mindset- Is science really telling me that I will be happier if I take my visiting teaching responsibilities seriously? I have to say that I have always tried to do my visiting teaching since I got my first assignment in my Minneapolis singles ward. I have developed a lot of good relationships through the process and learned to love a lot of people that I wouldn't have known otherwise. You see the struggles that they are facing and you have an opportunity to offer help. This goes with the whole developing compassion, having a good support network and participating in acts of kindness below. You also develop a bond with people that is so essential to us not feeling alone and uncared for.
Building relationships- Obviously the church is one of the biggest supporters in the world of the family. Family relationships are so important and I for one don't know where I would be without mine. They have been such an amazing support system to me through everything. Whether we agree on how we should be living our lives or not we have always been there for each other. We may have our fights and our disagreements but we get over it. Even my brother who is not active in church was telling me last week, how glad he was that our family has remained strong. He sees a lot of his friends that don't have family support and he is grateful that he does. One only needs to take a moment to read The Family Proclamation to see how vital the family is to our church leaders. Sad how this institution is being threatened on a regular basis, sad how many families fall apart and sad how so many never get started.
Physical activity- It is nice to see that our church leaders have mentioned in the afore mentioned proclamation "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." Our leaders are actually telling us to go and have some fun. How cool is that? We also have people with the specific assignment to serve on recreational committees. Obviously this is important to leaders of the church.
Believing in and contributing to something bigger than yourself- Oh GOSH! Where do I even start with this? Let's see, well I would say that God is definitely something bigger and better than myself and we are going to go so far as to try to be like him. He is all knowing, all powerful, loving, kind, longsuffering. Then if that isn't enough, we have the more human example to follow his son Jesus Christ. Let's see, he was able to heal the sick, turn water into wine, feed the 5,000, raise the dead, fast for 40 days and still withstood temptation, he forgave sinners and he raised himself from the dead, atoned for our sins and that is just a few examples of his life that was documented by his apostles. As far as us contributing to this wonderfulness... well, every member of the church should have a calling, a home or visiting teaching assignment, we do missionary work, we do temple work, we do family history, seminary, boys and girls camp... the list goes on forever and ever. I'd say we have this one pretty well covered.
Having a good support network- Well we already covered some of this with Home and Visiting Teaching, and we are taught to have and give family support, but we also have the support from a vast array of church leaders in our wards, stakes, and even up to the 70s and the apostles and prophets. What a mess I would be without their guidance and direction.
Developing compassion- Hmmm... where on earth would we learn about developing compassion? I was just at an institute class last week where we discussed how the savior showed love. Here are some of the things we discussed.
- He healed the sick
- He taught truth
- He loved God- President Monson stated, "We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellow men if we do not love God, the Father of us all."
- He noticed and spoke to women and children even though it wasn't socially acceptable to do so.
- He didn't fight those trying to kill him
- He healed the soldiers ear that was cut off when they were trying to arrest him
- He forgave
- He continued to teach even though his life was under constant threat
- He had patience
- He atoned for our sins
- He invited and challenged people to be better
- He elevated people
Participating in acts of kindness- Again the list is endless. I ask myself do I even start such an endless list of ways members of the church participate in acts of kindness? If you really need some examples here because they aren't obvious enough, you just let me know and we can go over them in greater detail.
In conclusion, based on the science of happiness, I don't know if there is another group of people with more opportunity or advantage in the happiness department. The reality though is that the church's teachings were never based on scientific experiments or studies. These teachings are as older than time and still they are proven by science to be effective means of happiness. What else can we conclude then except God love's us and he wants us to be happy. Our greatest challenge to happiness then is to apply the teachings of the gospel in our lives. The more we apply them the happier we can become.
One last thing I want to say, because I do not want anyone to misunderstand what I am saying here. Member's of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will not be happy every moment of every day. We will all have trials and challenges that will help us grow and develop if we will allow them to. It is my belief that God's desire for us to become like him outweighs to a much greater degree his desire for us to be happy all the time. This process can be incredibly painful at times and in those moments, happiness is very hard to find. It is also my belief that God wants us to have joy and this feeling supersedes happiness and has a slightly different path. Perhaps I will do a little more studying on joy while I am at it.
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