Striving for Happiness

The other day, I was looking at Elder Eduardo Gavarret's talk, Yes, Lord, I Will Follow Thee, but I didn't really feel like blogging about it then. I did, however, find a quote that I liked, and I had the thought that if I didn't copy the quote down somewhere, I'd forget all about it. So, I copied it into a word document and saved it on my desktop, then mostly forgot about it. This morning, I opened the file, reread the quote, and decided that I'd like to blog about it now.

As you strive to come to Him, you will gain the power to relieve life’s burdens, whether physical or spiritual, and experience a positive inner change that will help you be happier.

 I guess I didn't really need to give it a quote block, did I? Oh well. This helps it stand out more.

What I love about this quote is that it promises some very desirable blessings in return for striving to come unto Christ, whether you actually succeed in coming unto Him or not. All of us, or at least almost all of us, are striving to come unto Christ. Many of us have sins, habits, or weaknesses that hold us back from following Christ's path perfectly, but that's okay. There's only one human in the history of this universe who managed to go through life perfectly, and that was Jesus Christ. The rest of us have to struggle, some more than others, but thankfully, many of God's blessings aren't contingent on how righteous we actually manage to be, but on how hard we strive to be righteous.

Look at the blessings Elder Gavarret has promised. "You will gain the power to relieve life's burdens, whether physical or spiritual." I take this to me that as we strive to follow Christ, we will be given the strength and/or wisdom to overcome the challenges that are holding us back. Some of us have bad habits to overcome before we become as perfect as Jesus Christ was and is, but as we strive to follow Him, we'll gradually be given the power to overcome those bad habits and come unto Him more fully. Being given the power to overcome our obstacles, many of which are internal, may be how we "experience a positive inner change that will help [us] be happier." And who doesn't want to be happier?

God wants us to be happy, so He sent His Son to set the example for us, to show us the path that leads to ultimate happiness. That path can be difficult to follow sometimes, so God has promised that He will help us follow the path, as long as we're at least trying to do so. Gaining the power to relieve life's burdens, change our hearts, and become happier seem like great blessings to be offered in return for striving to come unto Christ, but that's because they are. God wants us to be happy, so He wants us to succeed in following His plan, so He offers us all the strength and wisdom we need to do so, so long as we're at least trying. I want to consistently strive to follow Jesus Christ so I can receive the power I need to change my heart and become more like Him, and fortunately, all I have to do to qualify for those blessings is to try.