There is only one true happiness in this world, to love and be loved.
(Georges Sand)
In a 2014 Gallup Youth Survey American teenagers were asked in an open-ended question, “How would you define success in life—that is, what do you think it is that makes a person successful?” Fifteen percent of all teens surveyed said that happiness and contentment are what makes a person successful. Ten percent of those surveyed believed that fulfilling ones goals is the way to achieve success. A similar percentage of teens (9%) equate having a good job with success. Other popular definitions of what it means to be successful included having a family, following God's will, and making money, all three of which were mentioned by 6% of teens."
At the time of this writing, according to, The World Factbook, the average life expectancy of an individual on this planet at birth is 71.0 years (68.5 for males and 73:5 years for females). The average life expectancy for an American at birth is 77.6 years, according to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Even at best, our span of life on earth can easily be compared to a microscopic dot on an infinite line stretched across the cosmos, a line which seemingly has no beginning and no end. Now, in light of this fact, what do you think it is that makes a person successful?” My answer is simply to know God better with each passing day. For it was through Him that all things began, and it is through Him that all things exist. Our challenge is to make our spiritual lives a first priority above everything else: happiness or contentment, a good job or personal achievement, having a family or making money.
The Apostle Paul looked at success in a way that is relevant for all people at all times. He said, “If I could speak all the languages of earth, that of men and angels, but lacked love, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If hadthe gift ofprophecy, and understood all mysteries, all knowledge, and all God’s secret plans, and if I had all faith, so that I could move mountains, but did not have love, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I had to feedthe poor,and sacrificed my body, but did not have love, it would profit me nothing.” The greatest measure of true success in all things and at all times is love—loving God and loving others.A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and mankind cannot live without love (Max Muller)
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