Are you a happy person? The Psalmist describes a happy, blessed man as one whose “delight is in the law of the Lord.” (Psalms 1:1.) Jesus paints a word picture of a happy person in the beatitudes of Matthew’s fifth chapter. And the apostle Paul encourages his readers to “rejoice evermore . . . rejoice in the Lord always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16; Philippians 4:4.)

Did you know that a cheerful disposition and a healthy body go hand in hand? As one doctor told his patient, “If you can’t take a joke, you’ll have to take medicine.” In front of the doctor was a copy of the Bible, opened appropriately to Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart does good like a medicine.”

A few years ago, a study of aging was conducted during which a committee outlined a ten-point program designed to help folks live past the century mark. Not surprisingly, one of the suggestions was simply to “cultivate a sense of humor.”

Allow me to ask the question again. Are you a happy person? You know the Bible teaches and encourages joy. As God’s child, you have been given everything under heaven, and in heaven, to rejoice about. You enjoy “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:3.)

And beside all this, as many of us have witnessed, “the surly bird catches the germ.”