Sabbathought: The Happiest of Men

Rodney Turner, longtime teacher of religion at Brigham Young University, set me thinking with these observations some years ago on the nature of God:

The Father---the happiest of men---endowed His Beloved Son with a "fulness of joy" (3 Nephi 28:10). He is in the business of "happifying" His children by sharing His own nature with them. Heber C. Kimball remarked: "I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively and good-natured when I have His Spirit. That is one reason why I know; and another is---the Lord said, through Joseph Smith, 'I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.' That arises from the perfection of His attributes; He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful Man" [JD 4:222].

Brother Turner continues: Our individual capacity for happiness was first developed in the premortal estate. It was there that we learned the rudiments of joy from the Gods set over us. As we partook of their spirit, we experienced a measure of the happiness righteousness produces. In this world of oppositions, joy is veiled; it cannot be experienced in its fullness---a fullness of joy comes only with resurrection. (See D&C 93:33; 101:36.)

But, from time to time we can---like Elder Kimball---partake of the joy of the Spirit. Indeed, we not only have the opportunity, but the obligation, to do so. A perpetually unhappy Saint is an oxymoron, a self-contradiction. President Spencer W. Kimball remarked: "If you are not happy today, you may never be happy" [TSWK, p. 173].

"Happiness," said the Prophet Joseph, "is the object and design of our existence" [TPJS, p. 255]. Righteousness alone can bring it to pass. To the degree that each of us acquires the divine nature, we will enter into "the joy of the Lord." (See D&C 51:19.) Consequently, when all is said and done, each of us will be as happy as we have chosen to be, which is to say, we will be as one with God as we have chosen to be. . . .

Brother Turner concluded: Our gracious Father has revealed Himself through His Son, His Spirit, His prophets, and His scriptures. To that extent, we know Him, and, therefore, to that extent we know ourselves. It only remains for us to magnify that knowledge until we are perfected and glorified in it.

Thank you indeed, Brother Rodney Turner.

This message from Brother Turner reflects the purpose of our weekly sharing in these Sabbathoughts.

May God---the happiest of men, our literal and actual Father in heaven---bless us all to act upon these clear and glorious matters of the soul.

Steve