Happiness or Pleasure?

This question is applicable to many things! Whether it be physical or emotional. It could be something as simple as, do I keep my diet and stay healthy or do I eat that chocolate bar and indulge myself? Figuring out what the difference between pleasure and happiness is in life can be a challenge. It amazes me how the world we live in confuses the two.

At the beginning of this year I started reading a book titled “Jesus the Christ” by James E Talmage and I recommend it to everyone. I have felt a deeper love for my Savior as I have read this book. I have gone really slow while reading it because I also read the scripture references he makes throughout the book. The other night I read a part where he talks about the true difference between happiness and pleasure in this life.

“The present is an age of pleasure-seeking, and men are losing their sanity in the mad rush for sensations that excite and disappoint. In this day of counterfeits, adulterations, and base imitations, the devil is busier than he has ever been in the course of human history, in the manufacture of pleasures, both old and new; and these he offers for sale in most attractive fashion, falsely labeled, Happiness. In this soul-destroying craft, he is without a peer; he has had centuries of experience and practice, and by his skill he controls the market. He has learned the tricks of the trade, and knows well how to catch the eye and arouse the desire of his customers. He puts up the stuff in bright colored packages, tied with tinsel string and tassel; and crowds flock to his bargain counters, hustling and crushing one another in the frenzy of their buy.

Follow one of the purchasers as he goes off gloatingly with his gaudy packet, and watch him as he opens it. What finds he inside the gilded wrapping? He has expected fragrant happiness, but uncovers only an inferior brand of pleasure, the stench of which is nauseating.

Happiness includes all that is really desirable and of true worth in pleasure, and much besides. Happiness is genuine gold, pleasure but guided brass, which corrodes in the hand, and is soon converted into poisonous verdigris. Happiness is as the genuine diamond, which, rough or polished, shines with its own inimitable luster; pleasure is as the paste imitation that glows only when artificially embellished. Happiness is the ruby, red as the heart’s blood, hard and enduring; pleasure as stained glass, soft, brittle, and of but transitory beauty.

Happiness leaves no bad after-taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction; it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse; pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering; and, if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction.

True happiness is lived over and over again in memory, always with a renewal of the original good; a moment of unholy pleasure may leave a barbed sting, which, like a thorn in the flesh, is an ever-present source of anguish.”

I feel that this is so applicable to the decisions we make daily, in life. What truly brings us happiness? Are we disguising pleasure for what may seem to be happiness?

As I think about happiness the first answer that comes to mind is my eternal family. Belonging to someone who loves me brings me great joy and knowing that I can be with them for all of eternity makes me want to do all that I can to keep that happiness in my life.

It is human nature to feel needed or have the need to feel secure. Family is the security we all need in our lives. As mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons we have the ability to create happiness within our homes and provide the security necessary. Parents must seek happiness over pleasure in their own marriages. I have seen many examples of adults who have sought out way paths of happiness in their marriages and seen the success it brings into their home. Putting another person’s desires or needs above your own will bring you true happiness. Sadly, we live in a world where we are surrounded by selfishness or pride.

Selfishness and pride are exactly what Satan uses to make us think we are seeking our “own happiness”, when in all reality, we are only seeking unsatisfying pleasure. Satan has made the pleasures of the world extremely easy to access. Justification for our prideful and selfish actions have become first nature among many throughout the world.

As we learn to forgive those whom have hurt us and overcome the pains we may have endured, we will begin to feel the joys of happiness, instead of the feelings of emptiness we receive through pleasure. I know that happiness is not something that comes naturally. Nor do I believe that it is something that is easily attained. The feelings of happiness are way more rewarding than feelings of pleasure. I know that happiness is something that is eternal.

I love what James E. Talmage says when he describes the memories of happiness. It can be lived over and over again without feelings of regret. I challenge all of us, to look in our own lives and see where we can replace pleasure with happiness. We may need to let some things go, but as we do, we will begin to feel the blessings of happiness work throughout our lives.