Happiness Comes From Giving What We Have

I can't begin to express what my heart felt and the lessons I learned from the sight of these Silly Bandz.

Little Miss had a birthday and was showered with gifts from her grandparents, and cake and ice cream and activities with Mom, Dad, and Little Man. The doorbell rang as we were all getting cleaned up from an outing to the splash park.  A little girl from down the street had come to see if Kids could play.  We told her that it was Little Miss' birthday and that we couldn't play at the moment. This girl is babysat by her grandmother (our neighbor) quite often and Kids have enjoyed having a friend to play with in our otherwise childless neighborhood. 

A few minutes later our doorbell rang and when I opened the door, I saw a pile of Silly Bandz sitting on the porch.  The neighbor girl had left them to celebrate Little Miss.  My eyes filled with tears when I thought about what this girl sacrificed.  She doesn't have hardly anything - her mother is barely making ends meet - yet she wanted to give. I had an image of her scouring her simple, few toys in hopes of finding the perfect treasure for Little Miss.

It was a great reminder that happiness doesn't come from having everything.  Happiness comes when we make others happy.  Happiness comes when we sacrifice our own wants and needs for others.  Happiness comes when we forget about ourselves. Happiness comes when we give - no matter how much or how little. 

I was reminded of the scriptures in Mark Chapter 12 ~

 42: And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

 43: And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

 44: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Finding happiness in the small and simple things of life

In today's word it seems like we are programmed to think that we can only find happiness when we are doing something that is unique, expensive or popular by what is currently trending.  This week I was taught a lesson by my 6 year old granddaughter about finding true joy in a simple, yet mind expanding homemade creation. I saw in her the excitement that came through the imaginative process and the end result of making something yourself, even if it was just built from discarded cardboard boxes, a plastic milk carton and some pipe cleaners.  It all started with her desire to make a rocket ship.  Seeing an empty milk container sitting on the counter the creative juices started flowing in her brain.  As I cut out a door in the container, she began listing all of the things that a rocket ship required - a steering wheel, a circuit board, levers, a remote control, etc. As she would mention each new requirement, she would use her imagination to find and build each item using cardboard, buttons, small toys or anything else she could find around the house.  She pulled the perfect sized boxes out of the recycle bin and covered them with construction paper and seemed to know exactly how everything should look and function.  As the project neared completion, she said over and over, "This is the best day ever" and could hardly wait for the official launch.  When the rocket was done she enthusiastically exclaimed that "this is the best rocket ship ever."  She placed the rocket on the launch pad and attached  the pipe cleaners, which were used to hold the rocket in place before liftoff and began the countdown.  When she finally reached zero she pushed the "button" on her cardboard remote control with the pipe cleaner antenna, yelled "blast off" and then grabbed the milk carton handle and flew the rocket ship throughout the living room saying over and over again, "This is the best day ever."  Most kids nowadays don't even know how to play with anything that does not contain a battery or a remote, but this sweet little girl found true happiness in her own imagination.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf talk entitled, "Happiness, Your Heritage"