The Duty of Being Happy

“There is no duty,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” We think of happiness as being deeply desirable but seldom perhaps think of it as a duty. But duty it is, for without it life falls short of its full power and purpose.

To attempt to define it would be difficult to do, for its formula varies. And among its paradoxes is this: the happiest people are not always those that one would expect to be the happiest. But there are some essential elements that must go into its making, and lacking any of these, the so-called happiness we have is of a lesser kind and quality.

First is faith, with work, and love, and a quiet conscience. These four together add up to a sense of peace and purpose, and a sense of rightness within faith in a loving Father who made His children in His own image and who holds before them limitless eternal purpose and progress; faith in the ultimate triumph of truth; faith that wrongs will be righted and that there will come an end to discouraging days and nights even if the dawn seem long delayed.

And then work: There are many kinds of work, but there isn’t much that could be called happiness without purposeful, willing work.

And as to love: This is one of the chief attributes of God, and one of the greatest attributes of His children. Without love there is little meaning in life: the love of friends and family those special few who have close and special meaning and the love of others also, all of whom are children of our Father. Love is one of the greatest ingredients.

And then, of course, a quiet conscience, free from a sense of uncleanness, free from a sense of dealing or judging unjustly, and with a willingness to admit errors and to make amends.

It is difficult to define happiness; but we know when we find it; and we know when we lose it; and we know that all men are looking for it. Others may help to make it. Others often impair it. But it isn’t something that someone can guarantee to anyone else. It is something that grows inside ourselves, with faith, with work, with love, and a quiet conscience, with peace and purpose and a sense of rightness within. Happiness is indeed a duty, for “men are that they might have joy.”