11. Gratitude, Virtue, Happiness

 Thanksgiving was this week. I think the lessons for this week were very fitting for the occasion. There are some great quotes from this week's lessons that stood out to me.

"Gratitude and generosity go together." - Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

"Surprisingly, professing concern for the plight of the poor is not correlated with helping them. Those who advocate government redistribution turn out to give far less to charitable causes than the average citizen. It is not calling on others to sacrifice that matters, what matters is direct personal action. Giving your time and your money to another human being is one of the most powerful ways to develop your own sense of gratitude."

This is also the crucial difference between Communism and Consecration. Consecration involves direct, personal action. It involves giving your own time and your own money. And it is key that this giving be voluntary, compelled only by the power of conscious conversion to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or agency. Participation in the communistic model requires the opposite.

"Ultimate meaning may be beyond us, but we can make our lives more meaningful, and it is meaning, not money or power, that illuminates our lives."

"The difficulty is not in identifying virtue. Practically every society on earth values the same virtues: honesty; wisdom and knowledge; courage; love and humility; justice; temperance; spirituality and transcendence. The difficulty, rather, is in practicing virtue."

As long as words retain their intended and original meaning, this is true. However, our present-day society seems to have increasing difficulty or refusal to even define what basic words mean. It is impossible to practice virtue if virtue cannot be defined or identified, or if virtue has been redefined as vice, and vice defined as virtue. It is not difficult for reasonable and honest people to identity virtue. For those who are neither reasonable nor honest, it is a task they are unwilling or unable to undertake. Not long ago, it was true that practically every society valued the same virtues. But today, it is not the case, even if they profess that they do, it is only with their lips. We all do not value the same virtues. We all do not want the same things, nor abide by the same standards of decency and civility. Those who value what true virtue is are more likely to practice it. The practice of virtue becomes the next great challenge and test of life, and the latter statement is still true. Those who do not attempt to practice virtue will eventually forget what virtue is.

The definition of happiness, and therefore the meaning of "the pursuit of happiness" becomes obscured or misunderstood because so many people in modern society do not understand the term in the same way as those in the time it was written. The United States was founded as a Christian nation, and the Founding Fathers even noted that the principles governing the nation would not be suited to any other kind of people. The scriptural meaning of happiness is more like fulfillment, rather than the shallow, secular version of happiness akin to pleasure. Whenever the scriptures speak of happiness, it is always the kind of happiness that is long-lasting, deep, meaningful, joyful, fulfilling. The scriptures also teach that happiness is not obtained through personal gain, pleasure, wickedness, or riotous living. Rather, it is obtained by the practice of liberty, charity, responsibility, industriousness, generosity and compassion. The "pursuit of happiness" as written is founded on this understanding of happiness. But when a people forget or reject the foundation upon which they are built, they construct a structure that does not in any way resemble the blueprint. Happiness is then understood to mean ease, convenience, abundant possessions, expensive clothing, fancy cars, massive luxury houses, popularity and praise. Maybe mix in there lots of free time, no need to work, and everything is provided conveniently, on demand and free of personal cost. This "happiness" should not be what we pursue. It is not happiness at all.