Happiness Is.

Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you get your paycheck.
It’s that feeling you get when you loan a friend in need fifty bucks and expect nothing in return.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you are excited it’s the weekend so you can unwind with a drink.
It’s when you are excited it’s Monday because unlike millions around the world you actually have a job.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you live comfortably in the possession of expensive things.
It’s when you realize that there is an opportunity in the struggle to build your character.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when a drink or drug make you feel like you are soaring.
It’s discovering elation in the very state of being.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you get a compliment that suddenly places you on top of the world.
It’s when you give that compliment and sincerely mean it.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t just going to church every Sunday.
It’s when you can see God in everything and every person you meet.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t indulging in a wonderful meal and over filling your belly because it tastes good.
It’s when you and self-denial team up at enough.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when someone sweeps you off your feet.
It’s that feeling you get after; when you trust that they won’t let you fall.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you buy your child all that it wants to please them.
It’s when at night during their bedtime prayers they thank God to just have you.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you are always having fun.
It’s when you search for fun in the things that mean the most.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you and your loved one watch your favorite TV show together about made up characters.
It’s when a life-changing book could be written based on a conversation between the two of you.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when everything in your life is going right.
It’s when the world crashes down on you and you’re still able to find something to be thankful for.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t when you have the best of everything.
It’s when you make the most of everything you have.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t “If it feels good, do it.”
It’s when you learn that self-discipline sets you free to fly.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t about the big achievements in life.
It’s about the major setbacks and how you overcome them.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t based on an impulse.
If it were, there would be no such thing as addiction.
Happiness is. Happiness isn’t.

If happiness is based on circumstance we are all doomed. Happiness is a challenge. Search for it in everything. It is not something we are blessed with; rather it is something that we attain when we are thankful for our blessings, no matter how great or small. Happiness can be achieved by simply sitting in our own company if we realize that in that company we are never alone. Happiness is in Him, that’s why happiness is found in the little joys of life. Happiness can be found in itself when we give it to others. Happiness is discipline. Happiness is.

Roads, Souls and Fire

You and I. We fight the same battle even though they’re different.
See, if I walked in your shoes I’d still be walking the same distance.
You think you are alone in fighting with your mind, and well
We all are alone until that point in where we find, what time will tell.
Wait. For what? Wait for answers. When we all go out looking
That’s when we become our own cancers. Because the answer, lies within.
But as we go about our lives as tiny dancers we don’t acknowledge our own sin.
Here we are putting our lives out there for everyone to see.
Posting our daily duties like the world has paid a subscription to read.
But deep within us we each hold our secrets,
And our insides are on fire while fighting our own battles.
But if I were to honestly believe you didn’t have problems,
I wouldn’t see you on this road, you’d be on the one less traveled.
I’ve been on that road once and I intend to go back
This road we’re on now is paved with its tar fresh and black.
Its yellow lines are deceiving and the white ones hold you to it
But if all this noise stopped we could see right through it.
It’s not real. This road is chaos and confusion. We can’t figure out why we’re all hurting but we love it.
Life on this road is just an illusion. While our dreams sit in reality waiting for us to rise above it.
Every day we put those black lines around our eyes and dress up our bodies hoping to cover lies
But every day becomes another day we didn’t try. This car can’t run forever, soon it will die.
As our engine sputters and runs on its last fumes we will wonder
Was it really worth driving through the storm just to hear the thunder?
That path that’s narrow the one we all know is there, well, it’s covered with leaves
There are vines that stretch across it and grass grows tall like the trees.
But there’s peace there on that road, a peace that’s all been planted in us like a seed
And the day we step foot on its path we can let the sunlight in to dry up the weeds
Our souls are like caves, see; we keep them dark and hidden, only the light from outside gets in
But no. What if we let The Light in, what would he find in our shadowy corners?
Cobwebs and dust he would see, and he would peel off the guilt, shame, and fear around its borders.
That light is in all of us just waiting to be ignited, and once in flame we will still have to fight it
Just because a fire glows within doesn’t mean the other side won’t tempt you with sin
And he does. The more your fire grows the more often he comes. Sometimes evil will win.
That’s the challenge though. That’s how we really grow, and in doing so, that’s when we’ve made it,
To that narrow winding road, the one full of peace, simplicity and realness, don’t tell me you don’t crave it.

This Christmas Season

This Christmas season let my heart be full of love
Let me come to know my Savior sent from above
This Christmas season let me understand
We are celebrating a gift from the Makers hand
This Christmas season it’s not about what presents I receive
It’s about knowing why I’m here and saying I believe
This Christmas season let me not get caught up in things to do
It’s not about having things just right if I’m not just right with you
This Christmas season let me follow my North Star
And as I sit beside your manger let me see you as you are
This Christmas season it’s not just about the man in the sleigh
It’s about celebrating Earth’s most magnificent birthday
This Christmas season let me enjoy the company I keep
And remember with tears of joy the ones whose bodies are asleep
This Christmas season let me be full of gratefulness
And pray for those whose hearts are filled with hatefulness
This Christmas season let my soul light up the street
And put a smile on the faces of those in whom I meet
This Christmas season let me love the gift of giving
Because in doing so I discover why we’re living

The Fight

We all have a battle that we constantly will fight

Some think this fight lies in the battlefields where blood is shed
Others think this fight lies in the streets where guns are kept
Some think this fight is up to the President to revolutionize
Others think this fight lies in battling for their rights
Some think this fight is standing up for what you believe
Others think this fight is getting the glory when you achieve
Some think this fight is to battle a sickness and overcome it
Others think this fight is to get knocked down and rise above it

I think this fight lies in the very depths of our soul
I think this fight is something we can control
What we fight day in and day out? Temptation.

We fight temptation in every day decisions
But we let temptation win under certain provisions
You see in fighting temptation true heart is what we lack
Some couldn’t beat temptation with his hands tied behind his back
We let him whisper his sweet nothings in our ears
But we don’t think to blame him when giving in brings us tears
Fighting temptation is when you tell the body you’re in control
Fighting temptation is when you let the body come second to you’re soul
We let the body control our lives day in and day out
When it thinks it needs something we tend to its never ceasing shout
I need this it cries, I need that, give me more of all that I think I lack
I need more food, I need more drink, I need more drugs or so I think
Imagine our world if we didn’t have compulsive buyers and so to liars
The ones that when things don’t go their way turn into baby criers
Imagine our world with out those giving in to sex, drugs and the bottle
Or the ones who’s spending budget is always turned on full throttle
Imagine our world if people could just hold onto the deadliest weapon
Instead of letting their tongues spout off words that should have been kept in
Yes, if we didn’t have all those people, there would be no one left in any nation
Which makes me say once again our true battle is fighting temptation
When we can figure out our bodies die and our soul is what lives on
Maybe we can reverse the roles and make our soul’s needs number one

The Last Generation

Over time everyone has thought, their days were much simpler than now
They walked to school both ways, or had to fetch their milk from a cow
They didn’t have gadgets to entertain them, no they entertained themselves
And those foreign things called books, didn’t just sit up on shelves
Yes, I’ve heard stories about how my family had to slaughter their own chickens
And when my pops got into trouble, he knew what it meant to take a licken
Oh stories I’ve heard of my great grandparents and the times they had back then
And I wonder what kind of stories will we tell the next generation
Will we say we had it rough, when all answers were at our grasp
We type in a question on the web and we get a result in a flash
We think we have it rough if we have to miss our TV show
Or if our phone stops working, it totally messes with our flow
Will we say our lives were so busy we had to pay for Yoga to relax
And when we were kids we had books we had to carry on our backs
Will I tell my grandkids I had it rough stopping at red lights
Because fifty years from now they predict cars to be in flight
Am I the last generation that remembers what it was like
When we would go outside and play pretend and go for rides on bikes
Am I the last generation who remembers when a computer didn’t exist in the house?
And Saturday mornings were the kind of cartoons you watched a cat chase a mouse
Am I the last generation who remembers buying a cassette tape
And listening to songs by Shania Twain instead of rap that spits about rape
Am I the last generation who’s mothers liked to poof their bangs
And pantyhose and stirrup pants made you part of the cool gang
Am I the last generation who didn’t have a cell phone until seventeen
And so a guy had to call her parents home instead of texting to sound so keen
Am I the last generation who ate together as a family around a table
Instead of in front of a TV so we don’t have to talk because we’re not able
Am I the last generation who asked for dolls as a Christmas present
Instead of a Wii, Ipod, phone, computer, or such that now sound so pleasant
Am I the last generation who had to do chores without complaint
Or we would get a spanking on our bottoms for not acting like a saint
We can’t say things get better as technology improves
Things like family interaction and real conversation are what we lose
We can’t say things are better now than they were fifty years ago
When divorce rates keep going up and church attendance is getting low
We can’t say things are better in discovering new ways to entertain
When in just forty years from now we will have WIFI to the brain
Am I the last generation who will know life when we tried to live
Are we a dying breed, those who instead of always taking would rather give

Some Things I Wonder

I wonder if people care about what I look like,
Because if they do I’m sure they’d say, I wonder.
I wonder if being happy involves having money,
Why do so many people hate their jobs, I wonder
I wonder why people idolize a celebrity,
That clearly has no morals, I wonder
I wonder why I thought alcohol was so great
If only under it’s influence I was okay to eat McDonalds, I wonder
I wonder why people say they want to be rich
When the suicide rate is increasing with wealth, I wonder
I wonder how little faith I must have if I can’t move a mountain
When all I would need is the size of a mustard seed, I wonder
I wonder why girls go to the bathroom together when stalls are separate
When guys go alone and the urinals are side by side, I wonder
I wonder why we invest money into saving animals
When people are suffering from homelessness, I wonder
I wonder where in the world do fruit flies come from
When I bring fruit home they aren’t there, I wonder
I wonder why some people say I love you to everybody
And others can barely muster up the words, I wonder
I wonder where the weight goes at night
When you lose it in your sleep, I wonder
I wonder if people could fathom God’s love for us
What would life be like, I wonder
I wonder why girls want to be so skinny
When guys say they like a few curves, I wonder
I wonder how people are afraid of evil
But forget all that is good, I wonder
I wonder why as technology advances
Our moral society gets worse and worse, I wonder
I wonder why people waste time counting calories
Instead of counting their blessings, I wonder
I wonder how some people can’t believe in miracles
When they can experience a sunrise, I wonder
I wonder where my mind goes when I sleep,
To conjure up the dreams I have, I wonder
I wonder why people don’t smile or say hello
When everyone longs to be talked to, I wonder
I wonder how God has patience with those that ignore him,
As we all sit waiting for a text from someone, I wonder
I wonder why we pay people so much to entertain us
When it costs us a loss of time in reality, I wonder
I wonder how people say you haven’t a choice with whom you fall in love with
When we have the choice to marry whomever we wish, I wonder
I wonder how come the best selling book on the planet, the Bible
Is only read by a small fraction of the world, I wonder
I wonder why people try to impress someone who doesn’t care,
When caring people don’t need an impression anyway, I wonder
I wonder if after people read this they think I’m crazy,
Or if maybe I’m one of the only ones who’s made time to wonder, I wonder