Pursuit of Happiness

 

All of us are on some kind of quest. A quest to buy a house, finish school, be hired for your dream job, or mine which is have a better relationship with God. I think I can go ahead and say that we have goals but our real desire in life is usually to find Happiness. It's hard to enjoy things when you are miserable. This week I have heard the word miserable probably 50 times. Most of my students are some what on the same level so I tend to do the same exercises for everyone. The word miserable was in one of the readings this week; this particular word is what foreign language teachers call a "false friend." For example, miserable in spanish is spelled exactly the same as in English but they have different meanings. In spanish, miserable means stingy. And obviously we don't use the word like that, we use it for a state of sadness, coming from misery. So I had to explain it several times to each student. Ok now that I have babbled on about my love for linguistics I will get to the point, if I have one at all....

Happiness! Ya, that was my point. Happiness is easy to translate but hard to describe. We have a definition for it, but everyone has their own view of what it would look like. Here are some synonyms that I literally copied from the thesaurus:

blessedness, bliss, cheer, cheerfulness, cheeriness, content, contentment, delectation, delight, delirium, ecstasy, elation, enchantment, enjoyment, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, felicity, gaiety, geniality, gladness, glee, good cheer, good humor, good spirits, hilarity, hopefulness, joviality, joy, jubilation, laughter, lightheartedness, merriment, mirth, optimism, paradise, peace of mind, playfulness, pleasure, prosperity, rejoicing, sanctity, seventh heaven, vivacity, well-being. ok so now with all these words I can easily paint a picture of what happiness looks like. Of course, still from my point my view. Which, made me stop and question. Why on earth would I think that my point of view is the best point of view? Because lets be honest, I have made mistake after mistake after mistake, and still haven't learned, maybe my plan to find happiness is not the best plan. Maybe, just maaaybeee someone else should be making some decisions for me. I don't want to say, "I should have listened to my mother," but in a lot of things... I should have listened to my mother. Or beyond that, I should have listened to My Father. Being God of course. I carry my Bible around with me everywhere and read it every chance I get. Since this is not something viewed very often here, people comment on it. I love it because I'm pretty bad when it comes to striking up a conversation about God without being pushy. I'm working on it. So I allow this abnormal gesture to speak for itself, and it does! One of my students straight up said, "I don't believe in God." I was shocked because usually nonbelievers don't bring that up to someone with a Bible in their hand. But hey, if you want to talk about it... let's go! I have been listening to Christian and only Christian music now for a while and some of the sayings have really hit home and caused changes. I am no longer going to miss a week of my blog because without constancy you will have no followers. No one wants to follow a juggler, its hard to keep up. So this whole "I walk a Christian life only until its enough for me for a while" stuff, is over. No back and forth. My life is an example of what having a relationship with God looks like, an example of complete Joy and Happiness and peace of mind, and whatever other word you picked out up there. I think the only way to succeed in finding that happiness is by no longer looking, after giving up your life to Jesus Christ, sit back, and allow the things to come to you. It's really that easy. You work on the relationship just like any other, but this one gives back more than you could ever imagine possible. Why wouldn't anyone want that? I do. You don't have to offer me that deal twice, where do I sign up? There is so much liberation in saying that, feeling that, and living that... that I want to share that with everyone I know. So if you are tired of hearing about it, get used to it. Its not going anywhere so please stop saying it will fade. You will be very disappointed. Although I truly hope that you find this happiness that I am talking about, that's what I am here for. To show you! what is right in front of your face or "knocking at the door," as you might have heard before. Now, I don't mind(not care) MIND! that you are here to live for you, I just want to show you that there is something more! You know you think it sometimes... "there's got to be more than this!" So keep thinking about it! I am going to translate a section of one of my new favorite jams from English to Spanish, because some of the sayings are too good not to share. If I make a mistake please keep in mind that I am doing it just for fun, and that I am still learning both my own language as well as Spanish. If you are trying to learn English or Spanish you can follow along with the song and read my translations, songs are a great way to learn! Enjoy Benji's fun pictures, he now loves to stick out his tongue!!

 

 

So This song really hit home with me in this second verse!

 

Lecrae- Dios es suficiente
Festeja como la vida famosa, date prisa que es la ultima vez, Persegui tus sueños, auque esto podría ser la última noche y cuando por fin tiene su plata en orden, pero nunca parece durar tanto

Usted sabe que esta harto de buscar, harto de perseguir, creo que sepa la verdad, simplemente no quiere enfrentarlo.

Su vida está vacía, aunque se divierte, usted nunca está satisfecho, nunca se tiene suficiente. Se pasa de la búsqueda de festejar, de drogarse, escabiar, de saltar de boliche a boliche, no puede parar, como si fuera un esclavo, y persiguiendo nada hasta la muerte!

Solia querer un montón de cosas

 todo lo que está en la tele: títulos, autos, ropa,

la moda, la fama,  joyas

concentrada en las cosas equivocadas Ahora estoy concentrada en ti y ahora sé que Dios me satiface

Él es suficiente para mi