It is related that Dwight L. Moody once offered to his Northfield pupils a prize of five hundred dollars for the best thought. This took the prize: "Men grumble because God put thorns with roses; wouldn't it be better to thank God that he put roses with thorns?" We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it, including the thorns.

"It is," says Fontenelle, "a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much." This is what happens in real life. Watch Edison. He makes the most expensive experiments throughout a long period of time, and he expects to make them, and he never worries because he does not succeed the first time.

Can we change our outlook on life by making happiness a duty? "I cannot but think," says Sir John Lubbock, "that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the duty of happiness as well as on the happiness of duty."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, in advanced years, acknowledged his debt of gratitude to the nurse of his childhood, who studiously taught him to ignore unpleasant incidents. If he stubbed his toe, or skinned his knee, or bumped his nose, his nurse would never permit his mind to dwell upon the temporary pain, but claimed his attention for some pretty object, or charming story, or happy reminiscence. To her, he said, he was largely indebted for the sunshine of a long life. It is a lesson which is easily mastered in childhood, but seldom to be learned in middle life, and never in old age.

"When I was a boy," says another author, "I was consoled for cutting my finger by having my attention called to the fact that I had not broken my arm; and when I got a cinder in my eye, I was expected to feel more comfortable because my cousin had lost his eye by an accident."

Children should be taught the habit of finding pleasure everywhere and to see the bright side of everything. Serenity of mind comes easy to some, and hard to others. It can be taught and learned. We ought to have teachers who are able to educate us in this department of our natures quite as much as in music or art. Think of a school or classes for training men and women to carry themselves serenely amid all the trials that beset them! This training could change their lives. Thoughts become things.

One of my early mentors only had a third-grade education. No matter what injury happened, physical or emotional, he would calmly state, "It's too far from your heart to kill you." If we always know why we suffer, our faith will have no room to grow. For better or worse, our faith affects others. We can do a lot through our words, actions and love to assist a person in finding happiness by exercising their faith.

Life's experiences are not always happy. But the world tells us to demand happiness, do all we can to attain it, and make personal satisfaction our chief goal. In the Bible, Solomon, writing about his own life, discovered that his wealth, power, position, wives and accomplishments did not make him happy.

Happiness is an elusive goal because people and circumstances change quickly. True and lasting happiness, however, comes from pleasing God. Thus, happiness cannot be achieved; it can only be received through a right relationship with God, because only God knows what is really best for us. If we are chasing after happiness, we will never find it. If we are seeking after God, we will find endless joy. Our thoughts should be centered on the Living Word to change our life to one of happiness.