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Happiness is one of the most elusive butterflies ever pursued. The fact is, happy people know that they are happy and that happiness is learned. It is a state of mind and peace of mind. It comes from the Bible and is a combination of the first two of a list of the qualities defining the divine character, also called “fruit of the spirit.” Love is the most important quality, so much so that the Bible says, “God is love.” But isn’t it great that God put joy next on the list? Joy is true happiness. So what exactly is joy? Joy plunges much deeper than just a feeling or emotion of up-beat, positive thinking. It is a conviction. Joy has a critical ingredient. We have peace with God because we love and obey Him. We have peace with other because we are genuinely concerned for them. We have peace of mind within, knowing that even when we feel friendly, God loves us and is working to include us in His future. To build the habit of happiness, we must have inner joy and peace of mind in our lives. In other word, “happy” is “blessed.” So happiness is to be blessed by God. No matter what happens in our lives, we have life, air to breathe, a measure of wealth, opportunity to learn and grow, and an incredible future in God’s family. With all these we should be happy. HOW TO AKE HAPPINESS A HABIT We can find all kinds of ideas about how to be happier in other magazines and books. Some of them may help someone find a certain measure of contentment, but it takes some straight-up, vertical thinking to find and maintain true, spiritual happiness Here are a few keys that will help. A. PUT GOD IN OUR LIVES Did you know that God earnestly desires that we human beings seek Him? God’s purpose fir creating us was that we would became His children—part of His family. To know and worship God makes us to be happy—we are doing what we are made to do. “Happy is the man who is always reverent.” B. OBEY GOD’S LAW We are to study all the laws of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in school. Guess who made those laws? That’s right. Now do you think God would make His finest and best creation—humanity—without creating laws of human conduct that produce true happiness? Of course not. The Bible even said it “happy is he who keeps the law.” How those that work? Consider God’s law about sex. God says not to have sex before marriage or outside of it. All good happiness experts points out that a major key to the happiness habit is to look outward toward others. C. THERE IS HOPE What is hope? Hope is wishing for a thing to come true; faith is believing that it will come true. Hope is wanting something so eagerly that-in spite of all the evidence that you're not going to get it-you go right on wanting it. And the remarkable thing about it is that this very act of hoping produces a kind of strength of its own Happiness thrives on the future. God has planned a beautiful future to share with you, me and everybody who chooses to be in it. That future is called “THE KINGDOM OF GOD” which Jesus Christ will soon bring to this planet at His second coming. To know that you have exciting potential, opportunity and possibilities is the road to happiness. Contrast it to the despair of no hope, no option, only more misery that so many face in this sad world today. This aspect of happiness helps us to remain realistically optimistic. It gives us practical confidence that we can get up and do great things. It fills us with hope. “For surely there is hereafter, and your hope will no be cut off.” So let’s build our own thankful list, stay hopeful and do the right before God and man, because that’s what will make us happy. These are the three basic, vertical points of building the happiness habit in our lives because they all point our loving and happy creator. Any “Keys” to happiness we hear elsewhere must come under these principles or they are of no more value than trying to roller-skate in a buffalo herd. “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.”