According to the World Book Dictionary, happy means “having a feeling of or showing pleasure and joy; glad; pleased; contented.” To me, the word contented sums up the definition.
Psalm 127:3-5 says, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Psalm 144:15 says, Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. If the Lord is our God, we should be happy!
Proverbs 3:13 says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. We need to ask God for wisdom. As wives and mothers, we need as much of God’s wisdom as we can get. We only get one chance with our children. Proverbs 3:18 says of wisdom, She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. God says we will be happy if we keep wisdom.
Psalm 146:5 says, Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: We will be happy because we have God to help us.
James 5:11 says, Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
We must endure being up all hours of the night, especially when our children are babies, because they are little for such a short time!
We must endure when the children are sick. One day they will be able to care for themselves and will not need us.
We must endure all the laundry, even when we know it is not dirty because they have not worn it. They only tried it on and put it in the discard pile, which is usually the floor where it is walked over for a week, then finally put into the hamper. We even must continue enduring when we know that the hamper was empty last night but now is almost overflowing. The Bible says we are counted happy if we endure!
We have God to help us. We can have God’s wisdom just by asking. Mostly, we can endure the difficult times that come into our lives. We can be happy and contented with the life God has given us. We just need to be anchored in Jesus so we can endure!
by Carmel Bailey
