Posted by Patti Johnson

Patti has been volunteering with Care for Pastors with The Confidante for Pastors’ Wives for 7 years after she and her husband received counsel from Care for Pastors as a way to give back to the ministry. She joined the Care for Pastors staff in January 2020. Patti is one of the administrators of The Confidante Private Facebook group for pastors' wives and is a regular contributor to weekly blogs. She loves to use her gifts and abilities to support the needs of the ministry. Patti has been married to her Pastor husband Keith for 36 years. They have 3 adult children who all to their delight live in Florida.

Posted by Patti Johnson

    How Happiness Happens

    Monday, October 31, 2022

    “If you’re happy and you know it,
    Say “Amen!” Amen!
    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Say “Amen!” Amen!
    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Then your face will surely show it.
    If you’re happy and you know it,
    Say “Amen!” Amen!”

    Who doesn’t remember that song from church youth group or summer VBS? And now I bet you have that tune stuck in your head with all 5 verses spinning around!

    It seemed so simple, if you are happy, turn around, clap, sit down, stand up, say AMEN! But how does happiness happen in life? Max Lucado asks and leads us into answering that question in his book How Happiness Happens, “Finding lasting joy in a world of comparisons, disappointments and unmet expectations.”

    If circumstances bring on the “happy,” then more money, more attention, more family, more peace more of anything good should make us happy and keep us happy. But it doesn’t.

    Because there are folks who live lives of plenty of all the good who are not happy and there are folks all around us that are living in tough, rough, and not good circumstances that are singing the song “if you’re happy and you know then your face will surely show it” and it’s real for them.

    Max Lucado in the pages of this book, peels back the layers of what makes us happy and what doesn’t, what sustains our happiness and what doesn’t, and goes searching and finding what’s behind the “happy face” …joy, pure, real, lasting joy.

    The book takes us through a series of “one another’s,” teachings of Jesus as He reveals the lasting joy, the winsome life of true happiness that is rooted in real joy.

    The book includes questions for each chapter in the back that help guide your personal in-depth study or a group that reads and explores this book together.

    Even though we are near the end of this calendar year, there is enough time to pick up this book and explore the source and resource of pure happiness that is rooted in pure joy.

    Help us continue providing resources of care for pastors and their families.

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