Receive Joy

I just finished reading several articles on self help ways of learning to love yourself and make yourself happy.

I guess this is a goal for many people, but I think this inward focus and effort may be the wrong way to open our lives up for true happiness.

When you focus your thought patterns and efforts on your self, you tend to close yourself off from those around you.

I do not think we were created to spend our energies fixing whatever we may think needs to be fixed in ourselves. I firmly believe we are here to serve others.

I think the best way to improve our lack of happiness or self assurance is to focus our energies on those who we cross paths with in our life.

When we get involved with helping others we can tap into the resources within us that enable us to have significant meaning in our world.

I realize that we must each find some "me" time to reflect on where we are in life, and where we want to go. Jesus even drew away to a quite place on a regular basis to absorb strength from the Father.

However, I truly believe that if we spend our lives finding meaningful ways to reach out to others, we will discover the true meaning of the purpose of our individual lives.

When we focus our thought patterns on seeking ways to improve life situations for others we will not have the time to be subjected to what short falls we may be loathing on in our own lives.

True joy comes from knowing that you have brought joy into the lives of others.