You Can't Buy Happiness

I had this song stuck in my head yesterday morning, so when I was asked to share a spiritual thought, I shared one based on this song. This morning, I'd like to share another one.

The Alligator royal family was obviously very wealthy. They had access to diamonds, pearls, rubies, and silver (jars). Then again, the fancy perfume they got smelled "like cheap cigars," and the royal crown was bought at a discount store for seven cents, so maybe they weren't so rich after all. But that's just as well because money can't buy happiness anyway.

Assuming that the alligators were wealthy, which is what I had thought before re-watching the video just now, this really illustrates the point that material possessions don't really make people happy. Most of the alligator sons obviously thought that they did, since they gave their father material possessions believing that receiving such wealth would make their father happy. When in reality, what actually brought the Alligator King happiness was his youngest son's expression of love.

Money can't buy happiness, but you can get it for free by sharing it with others. Making other people happy is a good way to become happy yourself, and expressing and feeling genuine love is a great place to start. The purpose of life is to obtain happiness by following the path that leads to it, and that path has nothing to do with becoming extremely wealthy or receiving a bunch of material gifts. As long as people have their basic needs met, they can be happy whether they have money or not.

I'm not a wealthy person, but I'm mostly satisfied with what I have and I'm able to find happiness without being very rich. Happiness is an attitude, not an acquisition. The Alligator King wasn't made happy by getting something. He was made happy by feeling that he was loved. And we are all loved by our Heavenly Father, who wants very much for us to find true happiness by following Him rather than pursuing the world's idea of happiness by obtaining material possessions.