Recently I've been internally debating the importance of "being happy", and I've come to a few revelations and conclusions. The first being this. Part of America's founding was in the interest of "the pursuit of happiness." But let's analyze this. I am a woman of faith. I accepted God's gift of salvation when I was 5 years old and have renewed my promise to God several times since. I believe that the Bible is God-breathed, and so therefore when there is an issue of moral question, when I want to know how I should act about something, I turn to the Bible for my answers. Not everyone does this. I get that. You live your life your way, I live my life my way, because in the end, we each answer for our own choices. There are clear laws in the Bible about how we should act, both to God and man, and within ourselves. For hundreds of years, these things were generally accepted as the way people should act, but over time, people have no interest in doing "what's right" anymore. The new moral compass is "What makes me happy? Don't I deserve to be happy? I should do whatever it is that makes me happy." And being the sinners that we ALL are, many of these things that make us happy are, in fact sins. Sin is fun. It is, I know, that's not something that every pastor or Christian would tell you, but sin is fun. It can be fun to drink yourself stupid, because your inhibitions drop and your perspective skews. It's fun to have sex with whomever you please, be it man or woman or a bunch of men or women, or heck, both! At the same time! It's fun to spend all your money: that purse is really cute, and it matches these shoes, but now we need a new dress for those accessories, and look at that big sparkly diamond. And then, someone else has something you want. It would make you happy, but if you asked them for it, they probably wouldn't give it to you, so you should just take it when they're not looking, and pretend you don't know what happened when they ask you about it. No one likes getting in trouble, so we lie to escape the trouble. That person over there did something that made you upset, and you deserve to be happy. Chances are that they'll do it again, so if you deserve to be happy, you need them out of the way. So just kill them. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Doing what is right isn't always fun. It can be quite painful. But God didn't call us to live lives seeking pleasure, He called us to live lives of honor, and glory to Him. He called us to love our fellow man. He called us to be productive with the time that is given to us. We're never granted any more than the minute we're living; why, oh why, does it HAVE to be about us? It should be about, and for, the One who gave it to us!
Teaching your kids that they should "do what makes them happy" is setting them up for failure, misery, and disappointment. Because while we are only given this minute, we should do in this minute as if we have to deal with the consequences of this minute FOREVER. Because we do. In this minute, taking a draw off that meth pipe may feel really good and make them happy, but it's going to tear them apart in the long run. It could even tear them apart right now. It could tear OTHER people apart. The man who sits at the bar, getting drunk because alcohol makes him happy, could be sitting in jail in 30 minutes for a DUI or even killing someone because he chose to drive home drunk. Sleeping with that really hot person you've been eyeing for awhile may make you happy now...but were you planning for a baby? Were you planning for a STD? Were you planning to be married to that person? It doesn't always end up like that....but it might.
My goal, as a parent, is to live every day with my kids as if it might be my last. There are stories everywhere about grieving parents whose child died, and the last word they spoke to them was one of anger and hatred. But I bet you at the time it felt like a weight off their shoulders. Finally they could express the turmoil that was brewing inside from resentment at an action or situation. If every day my son watches me, watches me living only in the moment and never thinking about what's to come, and then he grows up and lives the same...and I observe this behavior and wonder where he learns it, that's sad. That's tragic. And I earned that remorse. Because it was I who taught him to act and feel and live like that. So I say to you. Are you going to spend the rest of your life only seeking out the empty, shallow things that satisfy you in the moment but ruin your future, or are you going to think forward about what God would say to you on that day when you are judged, and act accordingly today? I don't know about you, but I don't look forward to when God questions me about the lies I've already told, the angry outbursts I've already made, the selfish decisions I've already committed. I am saved, and God sent his amazing Son to die for those sins already...but I believe I will still hear about them, and will still feel shame that I spent my last 28 years in such away.
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