Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today
Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way
When they needed my help was I there?(Have I Done Any Good? LDS Hymn #223)
Music can be a powerful teacher and Mormons use a lot of music in their meetings to help people learn how to live righteously. I like this hymn because it teaches us that being happy is a daily choice we make in even the small things we do and say … even the way we think. No one should feel they walk alone on the road of life, why should we let them? Reach out and help another, say a friendly word, thinking a kind thought.
Have you ever noticed how our face reflects what we’re thinking? Even when we’re not saying our negative thought out loud, it’s reflection passes across our countenance and just as many hurtful daggers are thrown at the subject of our judgment. If even the momentary passage of a negative thought across our features can effect pain and sadness, think how sweetly a smile could lift and encourage.
Not to mention the side effects of positive thinking over negative. Thinking negative thoughts is like drinking sour milk. At first it goes down the same, and then a moment later we cringe as the bad aftertaste hits us and makes us sorry we took that drink without thinking. Positive thoughts, however, keep our minds open and ready to receive more nourishment from the world around us.
Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, a leader in the Mormon church said in his talk “True Happiness: A Conscious Decision,” (Liahona, Nov 2005, 31–32) “Happiness is a condition of the soul. This joyous state comes as a result of righteous living.”
Joseph Smith, the first prophet in this dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, taught:
“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God.” (History of the Church, 5:134–35.)
I suggest that for today, you concentrate on virtue, starting with the things you say, that you do, even that which you think. Challenge yourself to think only good about the people you encounter today. Try to do good for another, for “[d]oing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure A blessing of duty and love.”
