A short article entitled, “To Be Happy,” has crossed my desk and reads, “Close your book of complaints and open the book of blessings. Believe that other men are quite as sincere and honest as you, and treat them with respect. Stop looking for friendship and start being friendly. Be content with such things as you have, and stop whining about things you do not have.”

I’m not aware of the article’s author, but I can vouch for the advice. Every one of the suggestions is based upon the teaching of the Bible: “Be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15.) “Love . . . believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7.) “A man that has friends must show himself friendly.” (Proverbs 18:24.) And finally, from Hebrews 13:5, “Be content with such things as you have.”

True happiness is not an elusive prey, perched tantalizingly just beyond our reach. It is not an “impossible dream,” available to only a select, privileged few. No, true happiness, contrary to conventional wisdom, is both readily available and easily attained. It comes freely and naturally from living for God, in God’s appointed way.

Didn’t Jesus say, “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them”? (John 13:17.)