Living the Commandments leads to Happiness

Today I read 2 John which has only one chapter. I actually read it 3 times because nothing really leaped out at me as I read it. The two verses that did stand out to me were 6 and 9. Verse 6 states that if we love God we will keep His commandments. This is the same thing John said in his record of Jesus' life. And we have talked about it before. When we follow the commandments of God, we are showing our Father in heaven that we truly honor Him and that His will is important to us.

Very few things are as frustrating as seeking advice from someone and not following it. After a few times the person giving advice might even stop giving the advice altogether. When I was in high school I had a very good friend. She was not a member of the church, but still a very good person. She still is. She was a typical teenager and made lots of choices that I considered ill advised at best. The problem was, before making most of them, she would come to me for advice and see what I thought. Having the benefit of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I always had very strong opinions on the matter and since she asked for them, I was willing to share them unabashedly. The problem was, she would almost never take my advice. And every time she did not, it always, always turned out as I predicted, which was not a good thing. After awhile though, I got so tired of having my advice sought after but not being heeded that I stopped giving my advice altogether.

I imagine that Heavenly Father is the same way. When we seek His help or an answer to a prayer but then we don't act on that answer that we were given by Him, I think it is harder next time to get an answer or help to our prayer or question. No one, not even Heavenly Father, likes to have their advice ignored. This is going to sound wrong at first but I will expound on it, but that's what the commandments are. The commandments are God's outline for a happy life. He is telling us what it takes to be happy in this world and in the world to come. However, this advice or suggestions are in fact, commandments. Because we are recalcitrant and little children, we will not take His advice in the manner that we should, and so we are commanded to live those principles and those ideals until our very nature changes and we no longer need to be commanded. Then we will look upon Heavenly Father with gratitude for His commandments and what they have made us into. I know I have.

When we work to change our very nature it is a slow process. The first few times it is hard to do things differently and to overcome the natural man in us. But the more we do it, our nature starts to change until we eventually wonder how we could ever have lived another way. When that happens, that is when we need to fall on our knees and thank Heavenly Father for loving us enough to change us. His way is happiness, the only way to true eternal happiness. Until tomorrow.