Do what makes you happy!

It’s a cute phrase to put on a calendar, t-shirt, waterbottle, notebook, sticker, pin, and just about anything else that has flowers and pink letters. (No offense to people who love pink.)

But the truth is, if you make this motto your life it will ultimately ruin you.

You’ll find that doing what makes you happy is not actually going to make you happy all the time.

Look: I really like Pinterest. If you’ve chatted with me on YDubs, then you probably know I really like Pinterest. And sometimes, it makes me happy! I like saving pins of baggy jeans, haircuts, game ideas, places I want to visit, or weird but adorable shar-pei dogs! But sometimes, it doesn’t make me happy—not if I’ve been scrolling for 30 minutes and at this point my home-feed is overwhelmed with videos of that chocolate master guy.

You might be like: but that’s one thing, surely other things in life make you happy!

Sure, here’s a list for you: sleeping all day, profane music, being mean, not doing chores, and more.

Those things aren’t necessarily good, even if they make me happy.

Happy does not equal good.

You see, when we fill our hearts with only things that make us happy, we are never going to be happy and here are a few different reasons why:

1. Happiness does not equal peace.
2. Happiness is temporary and fleeting.
3. Happiness is an earthly feeling.

However, we can find joy and peace in things that last forever.

For example: Scripture. Psalm 119 says we should hide God’s word in our hearts that we might not sin against him.

We can also store his word in our hearts to find joy and peace, to remember his forever goodness, to fill our hearts with something not fleeting.

Luke 21:33 says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Our happiness is not found in earthly, temporary things, but in holy, permanent things.

~Willow