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| Many women wonder why they are not happy |
Have you ever noticed that individuals who are heavily involved in a sinful lifestyle are rarely happy? They are usually battling one form of addiction or another. If the sin is particularly egregious, there are feelings of guilt, regret, isolation from friends and family, and a host of drama related issues. Wickedness never was happiness.
That being said, we are all trying to live a better life, to keep our integrity and live a good life. There are many ways you can do that.
Fostering a spirit of morality becomes difficult when competing with modern corruptive forces within our homes. Do what you can to remove those negative influences. Instead, surround yourself with positive, uplifting media. Most of you don't have to be playing church hymns all day, but make sure a good portion of the media you take in is wholesome and teaches correct principals. My wife will listen to church conference talks while she works in the kitchen, or only allow church related videos for the kids during the bulk of the day. And yes, she does listen to church hymns most days. I am not so zealous.
- Hypocrite /hĭp′ə-krĭt″/ noun
- One who assumes a false appearance; one who feigns to be what he is not, or to feel or believe what he does not actually feel or believe; especially, a false pretender to virtue or piety.
Integrity is a virtue that we all have to work on. Everyone is hypocritical to some degree. However, the term is overused these days. You are not a hypocrite if you are trying to live up to a higher ideal and falling short. That is called being human. You do not need to beat yourself up for falling short of the goals you have set for yourself. If you never fall short, you have low expectations of yourself and will fall into stagnation.
Imagine a caterpillar, they are this lowly grub as they are. One particular caterpillar may hate itself because it is not a butterfly. That caterpillar certainly isn't being fair to itself, for it has potential to improve and grow into a butterfly. I suppose another caterpillar would tell itself and the other caterpillars around it to be content with being a lowly grub and never improving. This is not good either, because while we should not hate ourselves for the state we are in, we should not be content with complacency and stagnation.
What we need to to is not hate ourselves for where we are, but strive to be better.
The Repentance Process
Repentance is the act of putting away bad habits and improving ourselves, or working to correct any misdeeds we have done. As we continue on the repentance process with the imperfections in our lives, we become more Christlike and happier as individuals.
Before we even begin to repent, we need to recognize that we have done wrong. A drug addict will never give up that substance until they recognize that their usage of illicit substances is harming themselves and those around them. Same thing with all forms of sin and/or wrongdoing. A murderer needs to understand that what they are doing is wrong. Like pain, guilt is a natural emotion we feel when we know we have hurt ourselves and others. Many mistake that feeling as some result of other's disapproval. Although the feeling can be exacerbated by others, this feeling comes within. No amount of public approval will obliterate feelings of guilt for misdeeds.
When we recognize we have done wrong, we need to make amends for those actions. This may mean apologizing, paying for repairs that need to be done, or working to restore things as best as we can.
Most importantly, we need to stop or correct our action and be better in the future. It is not so much where we are, but the direction we are headed in life.
Living the Good Life
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