Ps 71:17 O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do.
I didn’t have a traditional childhood. My parents divorced by age two and mom remarried someone with three children. All I remember was constant turmoil and living in their shadow so I had difficulty relating to the concept of happiness. By age twelve my step-father died. The next year my mother remarried and we moved to Italy. For the first time, I felt life could be good. I enjoyed going to school, learned a new language, and even discovered boys, in a European, chaperoned kind of way. I made up my mind to make the best of this time in my life. But it only lasted two years and mom divorced again.
Later in life I became a Christian and learned true happiness is doing things God’s way. When we follow his plan, trusting God is in control, we realize we are happy. When we believe in God we will see the things around us that God has done and is continually doing in our lives. Then, as we tell others about all the wonderful things he is doing in our lives, we immediately realize how happy we are.
Happiness is also doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason. Believing that God is in everything we do, we can share happy moments without fear, as a testimony to his love for us and our happiness in him.
Jena Kleinpeter 