Sometimes I wish to live my life with a steady practicality. I like to see and analyze and choose my path with a clear view of what choices I am making. My mind tells me this way is the safe way to live--the way to living without faltering steps. And yet my heart knows better. My heart listens patiently while my mind speaks of rationality, then my heart gracefully leads out with hope and faith and with all the joys and risks that make an abundant life. I step and step again. At once I find myself soaring to the most beautiful music, and seeing the most exquisite things. Such things I could not have imagined into existence.Some time ago (April 2006), Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin spoke of the abundant life. He said, "I have heard some claim, perhaps only partly in jest, that the only happy people are those who simply don’t have a firm grasp of what is happening around them." Well, perhaps not, but I prefer it that way!
Elder Wirthlin went on to say, "But I believe otherwise. I have known many who walk in joy and radiate happiness. I have known many who live lives of abundance. And I believe I know why. Today, I want to list a few of the characteristics that the happiest people I know have in common. They are qualities that can transform ordinary existence into a life of excitement and abundance." How remarkable that an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ has given us the secrets to happiness. There is a multi-billion dollar industry created and maintained by the search for happiness. Here it is, free, a message from the Someone who wants our happiness the most.
"First, they drink deeply of living waters... The abundant life is a spiritual life." How true, how true, how true! The greater my focus on my relationship with God, and the further I travel into the living waters, the more pervasive my peace becomes. It percolates through my soul. I find myself lifted and guided. I find excitement and joy. I find my that my pathway is prepared and my every thought is heard.
"The second quality of those who live abundant lives is that they fill their hearts with love." Love? Yes, love. For no matter how much love we give away, the Savior's love is more than enough to replace what is gone from our stores. In fact, we find that love given is love gotten, and that kind of love just multiplies and grows forever.
"The third quality of those who live abundant lives is that they, with the help of their Heavenly Father, create a masterpiece of their lives." Sometimes I think we see ourselves as the four-year olds in President Uchtdorf's story and doubt our ability to withstand the challenges of life, to say nothing of creating something of beauty. Heavenly Father knows us and sees us as so much more. We are His children and heirs. Elder Wirthlin said, "There is a spark of greatness within every one of us—a gift from our loving and eternal Heavenly Father."
And so I follow my star and look around in daily astonishment at the wonders it brings me as I strive to live the abundant life.
