August 29 2014 (Friday)
Recently I wrote a blog suggesting that gratitude and forgiveness are qualities of life that you need if you want to be happy. The song, “I want to be happy,” written in 1925, suggests that perhaps a third action might help, and that’s the desire to help others find happiness, too.
The song starts with this verse: “I want to be happy, but I won’t be happy ’till I make you happy, too.” *
Happiness is not really an end in itself; it is a by-product. A by-product of what? Of service to others. In what ways? There seems to be no end of the ways in which we can be of help to others. If we ask the Lord to lead us, He will show us where the needs are.
Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray,
My prayer shall be for others.
Others, Lord, yes, others,
Let this my motto be.
Help me to live for others
That I might live like Thee. **
Can you say, “I want to be happy, but I won’t be happy ’till I make you happy, too?”
* Song, “I Want to Be Happy” Words: Irving Caesar Music: by Vincent Youmans (for the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette).
** Hymn, “Others” (1902) Words: Charles D. Meigs, Music: Elizabeth M. Shields