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learn to be happy today (Jedidiah M. Grant)

“A great many people feast upon imagination instead of feasting upon that which is tangible, and they will allow their minds to be led away by fancy, and will make out some great that they will be in some future time, and how good they intend to be and how much of the Holy Ghost they expect to receive; but the idea is, what do you enjoy at the present time, and what are the blessings you enjoy at this present moment, right now?  Am I doing right today?  Is the Holy Ghost in me now?  Is God’s blessing with me now (not at some other time)?  If so, then all is well.  I want the Saints to be impressed with the motto of being happy all of the time; if you cannot be happy today, how can you be happy tomorrow?  I speak this from what I have learned myself; though it has given me much of trouble, and a great amount of perseverance, to be happy under all circumstances.  I have learned not to fret myself.  It has taken me a great while to arrive at this point, but I have obtained it in a measure, and perhaps many of you have obtained the same thing, but I doubt whether a great many have learned the secret of happiness.
In order to understand the principal of happiness you must not be ever complaining, but learn not to fret yourselves.  If things do no go right, let them go as they will, if they go rough, let it be so; if all hell boils over, let it boil.  I thank the Lord for the bitter as well as the sweet; I like to grapple with the opposite:  I like to work with something to oppose.  I used to dread those things, but now I like to grapple with opposition, and there is plenty of it on the right hand and on the left.  When trouble gets in among you, shake it off, or bid it stand out of the way.  If the devil should come and say, ‘Brother Brigham is not doing his duty, or is not doing right,’ kick him right out of your way; bid him depart, do not allow him to have place in your habitation, but learn to be happy.
I remember a noted deist who said that it was a poor religion that would not make a person happy here in this life: he would not give a fig for such a religion: and I would say the same: give me a religion that will make he happy here, and that will make me happy hereafter.  If you have the blues, or the greens, shake them off, and learn to be happy, and to be thankful.  If you have nothing to eat but jonny cake, be thankful for that, and if you have not jonny cake, but have a roasted potato and butter milk, why, be thankful; or if you have a leg of chicken, or any other kind of food, learn to be thankful, and if you have only one dollar in your pocket, learn to be as happy under these circumstances as if you had ten dollars.”
Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses 3:11
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