Part 6: Joyful Living

Hooray! We come to the end of my categories of divine nature with one of my favorites! Finding joy in life. I think there is so much emphasis these days (and maybe always, but I’ve only lived through the last almost 40 years, so I can’t speak to more than that) on negative things. I absolutely love that we have amazing examples of joy and enthusiasm and happiness, even in the midst of terrible circumstances. I am grateful that we can develop divine aspects of living with joy.

This year I’m working on that a lot. Maybe I’ll share some details on that later, but the short version is that all of my vision and goal statement for the year involve joy and delight. It’s something that I’m finding I actively have to cultivate more and more as responsibilities weigh heavily, as my body gets older, as our children’s struggles gets harder, as life gets more complicated. I actively have to return to this place of joy in every circumstance.

I’m grateful that I now have a small list of beautiful examples to remind me of how to get there.

·         Enthusiasm (3 Ne. 19:2).

·         Sincerity—“fools mock”; the wise do not need to mock to feel strong, they can be sincere (Eth. 12:26).

·         Delight/Joy in the gospel, in Christ, in life: “my soul delighteth in [Isaiah’s] words” (2 Ne. 11:2; see also Alma 4:13–14). (Related: 1 Ne. 16:32, Alma 55:19).

·         Sense of wonder, appreciation of amazing things (3 Ne. 11:1).

·         Capacity for grief—over your own and others’ sins, over the sorrows of others, etc. Nephi mourns for the wickedness of the people, even as he continues to try to help them (Hel. 7:11; see also Mos. 5:15).

·         Willingness to suffer for Christ (Alma 4:13–14).

·         Joy and fortitude in the face of sadness—“my heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day” (Morm. 2:19). What is more like God than living joyfully despite sorrow at seeing the terrible choices that people sometimes make?

·         Finding and receiving blessings in any circumstances—“blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute...for my sake” (3 Ne. 12:11).

·         Submitting cheerfully to difficult situations (Mos. 24:15, Alma 1:25).

·         Patience (Alma 38:3).

·         Enduring gratitude—“when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord” (Eth. 6:9; see also Mos. 2:4).