where they are
It was news that deeply saddened me. My nephew’s wife, more than 2 months pregnant, found out that the baby within her womb was no longer living. I sent her and my nephew a message—expressing my grief and assuring them of my love. A few hours later, another niece gave birth to a healthy baby girl. I sent them a…
money and happiness
How much money does one need to be happy? According to a study from Princeton University, it’s $75,000 (US dollars) a year. The study claims that the lower a person’s annual income falls below that benchmark, the unhappier he or she will be.
At a recent trip to a rural district in Thailand, however, I saw a lady peddling snacks…
time well spent
Her name is Mary Jane. Having married a steelworker, she’s seen the boom and death of a Pennsylvania steel town where they happily raised their children. When the town no longer held any promise for them, they moved to Florida to enjoy their latter years. Today, though, she misses her husband even though he’s been gone a while (she’s uncertain…
why work?
Think back to a time when you were part of a team through school, church, business, volunteer work, or sports. With that experience fresh in your mind, answer the following: What was your team’s primary goal? Prepare a class presentation? Share the gospel with 500 people? Increase sales by 25 percent in three districts? Win a state or national championship?…
it's only money
Grigori Perelman won the Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving a problem that had stumped mathematicians for a century. When told that the prize came with a $1 million award, Grigori, a reclusive genius who lives with his elderly mother in Russia, said that he would need to think about whether to accept the money.
Grigori may…
wrong directions
Last summer, a couple from Sweden took a wrong turn on their way to paradise. The duo was determined to reach the beautiful island of Capri, Italy. As they headed out from Venice, however, they went the wrong way. You see, they had accidentally entered “C-A-R-P-I” into their car’s GPS, not “C-A-P-R-I.” So when the two found themselves in the…
what makes you happy?
In 1937, researchers began studying the health and happiness of 268 Harvard University students. For many decades, the condition of these men was tracked. Featuring many years of data, the research was a serious attempt to answer a simple question: “What makes us happy?”
In 2008, Dr. Vaillant, the director of the study, was asked what he had learned about…
your version of joy
So I was surfing the Web when the words of an online banner ad caught my eye. “Find your version of happiness now.” Interesting, huh? The fine print in the ad explained that it was for Personals— designed to link people in search of dates with other like-minded individuals.
Whether it’s finding Mr. or Ms. Right or simply ordering that…
power isn't happiness
I recently watched Ghosts of Girlfriends’ Past. The movie (which is a loose adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) is about a hedonistic, womanizing bachelor who despises the idea of love and marriage. The night before his younger brother’s wedding, he is visited by ghosts representing his past, present, and future girlfriends. By the next morning, he opens his broken…
true view
Researchers Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton have coined a term for the religious beliefs of many teens—Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Their view of God and faith—shared by a good portion of adults as well—is moralistic in that they think life is all about getting people to “be good.” Therapeutic stands for the reality that the teens feel that faith is…
choose love
The actress Cameron Diaz explained why none of her romantic relationships have led to marriage. “I think that what I’ve found . . . is that you always find the person you’re meant to be with at that time in your life. And what I’ve also found is that you have to move on from those people at certain times,…
shared happiness
The 2007 film Into the Wild tells the true story of Chris McCandless. Upon graduating from college in the early 1990s, McCandless had become disillusioned with his conventional life. Without saying a word to his family, he sold all his belongings, disappeared into the back country of the western United States, and eventually ventured deep into the Alaskan wilderness—alone.
McCandless…
