Your happiness depends on you

Today is a gift from God. How you use this day is up to you.

We all have the same amount of time, and we can have a good day or a bad one. You make the choice for the kind of day you have, and you can make it happen. I want today to be like Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Every day is another opportunity to be happy. Squeeze it and love it. Please don’t waste it.

Let’s not live in the past. Living yesterday brings up past mistakes and regrets. Worry takes on the sorrow of tomorrow and takes strength out of today.

Have you had trouble? Sorrow? Did someone do you wrong? Wounds of hurt and pain have touched us all, but we don’t have to allow the past to rob us of the joy of today.

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34).

Today is also a passing day. It is going into the “tomb of time.” You cannot save, loan or borrow time. All you can do is use it. Time is a precious commodity. What will you do with it? Here are some suggestions:

1. Live in the joy of today, not the mistakes of yesterday, nor the worries of tomorrow.

2. Today is the day to enjoy and love your children. They are precious, and they grow up fast.

3. Today is the time to give your wife flowers.

4. Hug someone. If you give a hug, you usually get one back.

5. Count your blessings. You have a lot more than you think.

6. Today is the day to appreciate a sunrise or sunset.

7. Today is the day to enjoy the smell of a spring rain or the smell of new-mown hay or a freshly mowed lawn.

8. Today is the day to express admiration to someone you have long admired.

9. Today is the day to forgive all wrongs hurled at you. Keeping them in your heart and mind is a real joy stealer!

10. Today is the day to bless someone else. The blessing will come back to you when you make someone else happy.

11. Volunteer your time to a worthy cause. You will meet new people and make many friends.

12. Whatever comes your way, be joyful. Many people are worse off than you. If there were no losses, there would be no gains.

Be happy today. We do have problems in this life, and that is all the more reason to know “… the joy of the LORD is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).”

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Every day is precious. Be grateful you’re alive.

We make the decision to be happy.

Today is God’s gift for you wrapped in love!