What Are You Willing to Do for Happiness?

What are you willing to do for happiness?

What would you do for happiness? For total fulfillment?
​What would you be willing to do to get it? What would you be willing to endure?
I've often asked myself this question. In fact, I'm in this very predicament as I write this.
What would I do?
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A dry and desolate desert

I've been living in a foreign country for 14 years come August. A place that I have never felt peace in and that I have never fit into. I has been a place of challenge. I guess you could even say it has been my desert, although there's rarely ever heat or sunshine unlike an actual desert where I came from. It's been more of a Moses kind of desert, a figurative one that's dry, weary and desolate...where the wandering feels endless.  I can say in all honesty, open and from my heart, it nearly destroyed me. Only my children and the love for my husband has seen me through the hard times. But I've come to the point in my life where I'm looking at real happiness and starting to really figure out what that means.
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What is happiness?

​You see, we've become accustomed to a certain way of living. Where things are easier to come by and the financial struggle is no longer a struggle as it was in the beginning of our journey, throughout the years of our marriage. But happiness? Does financial security really equal happiness? I have found the answer to that question... And at least for me, I can say the answer is no. I wrote a blog a few months ago entitled “Less is More”, and it was about this same subject. And between the time that I published that blog and today, the reality of less being more has become even more valid in my life. Having more material things is not happiness. Doing what you love and having the feeling that what you're doing matters, for me is what's really important. Serving others and being a light in the darkness, showing unconditional love and standing up, no matter what the cost, for what you believe in is what happiness and contentment really is, in my perspective.

The American dream

So many of us, myself included, often go through life working a 9-5 job. One that's necessary to make ends meet, raise a couple of kids, take the kids to soccer practices, meet with friends once a month, if that, pay our taxes, take a vacation once every two to three years to a nearby city, retire at 65 and struggle to make ends meet again while collecting social security. And then being laid to rest with a headstone that reads, “In Loving Memory of...” Sounds like a typical, American Dream life? Or at least the standard motions of what the majority of people go through from the beginning of their career until retirement and death.
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We are meant for more

But this is not good enough for me! I want my headstone to read, “Lived her life to the fullest” or “If I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing.” A lot of people say that I'm fidgety, unsettled. I'm in constant motion, unhappy and trying new things. And I must admit, it could appear this way to most. But it's not me being unhappy, it's me searching for happiness, for fulfillment. Desiring to do more, be more, be a life changer and live out my true-identity and purpose while existing on this earth. Settling for the normal, ordinary, mundane life is not for me. I want to leave my mark, make a difference and be a influential voice to those in need. But most of all, I desire with everything inside of me, to live out what God created me to be, for his purpose before the earth was ever created. And for me, this is not just the ordinary!
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God created each and every one of us for a specific purpose with the gifts that he placed inside of us, to use for his glory. (1 Cor. 10:21) And what better way to live out this life than to live for what he created us to do? Right??!!

​"I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"--but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Cor. 10:23-24)
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Endure to the end

Therefore, I will live to serve him, live to please him and will not succumb to the pressures that people attempt to place on me. I've been faced with resistance and straight out persecution about what I do and what I write about. And not just by one person. This is where I can say with confidence that I am on the right path. I believe wholeheartedly, based on God's word that when we are going about his business that is when we will be persecuted the most. But those that endure to the end will be saved.(Matt. 10:22)
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​I seen this great quote on Facebook today....

In this life you only get one shot. Why not live it with passion, purpose and fulfillment to the very best of your ability?

With Love and Blessings,
​Robin

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