encouraging words

Sometimes one feels that they are missing out on something in life. They feel that if they could just do this, or be that, or go there, then they would be happy. If they could just change the way they look, or the way they act then they would be happy. Is this true? Would they be happy? Or, once they achieved whatever it is, would they just look on to the "next" thing that they wanted?

I recently looked up the word happy in the 1828 Webster's Dictionary:

Happy-Being in the enjoyment of agreeable sensations from the possession of good; enjoying pleasure from the gratification of appetites or desires. The pleasurable sensations derived from the gratification of sensual appetites render a person temporarily happy; but he only can be esteemed really and permanently happy, who enjoys peace of mind in the favor of God. To be in any degree happy, we must be free from pain both of body and of mind; to be very happy, we must be in the enjoyment of lively sensations of pleasure, either of body or mind.
Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. Gen.30.
He found himself happiest, in communicating happiness to others.

I loved this..."he can only be esteemed really and permanently happy, who enjoys peace of mind in the favor of God"...

Wow. What a reminder of where our true happiness should lie. Where our happiness should come from.

We should not find our happiness in how "good" at our life we are.

We should not strive to be like this person, or look like her, or be that kind of wife. (Don't get me wrong, we definately need to pray and seek out ways to be the very best we can at all of our jobs as wives and mothers. But not consuming ourselves with what we aren't...what we don't have...what we feel we may never be.) We need to find our joy and contentment in the Lord. We need to be satisfied with this season of our life. We need to revel in it and never take one moment forgranted.

For like a mentor of mine said, "Be aware of the season you are in. Love it! Enjoy it! For you will only ever have it once."
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Thank you Tara, and thank you to my dear Husband, for your encouraging words~