Yes well animals have souls, too if you check Genesis it says animals have souls.

But the bible never says anyone but man has a spirit.

What if God gives us a spirit to make up for a soul problem that animals don't have?

People seem to be more out of sync with creation than animals are.

Animals don't debate at all. Perhaps they're already conformed to God's will and humans are the odd animal out.

Of course the above could be wrong. It's purely a different way of looking at things.

My singing is quite awful cause I have a bad voice, I avoid it. Bible reading can make you happy but you said Christians are generally happier people.

How does having a bigger IQ equal more happiness. Thought ignorance was bliss?

That's not what he said.

It wouldn't be accurate to classify my view as "Christian", but I believe Yeshua is the Mashiach ( or "Jesus is the Christ" ).

It's not that important or relevent to increase happiness if you're a believer; after all, believers shouldn't be hedonists.

I don't think you should avoid suffering or persecution, especially for righteousness. Consider Yeshua and many of the early believers; also, what about those that have given up their lives to preach the "gospel of the Kingdom " elsewhere? Read James 1:2-8. [ Note that "pure joy" and "happiness" are not identical. ]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I apologize to the readers for my confusion. I'll try to clarify some things in my next post. This can be a complicated discussion, as I knew that "Happy" and "Suffer" could somehow be intertwined with each other.

That being the case, I will try to explain some of my views which might help you understand my way of thinking and hopefully I can make my thoughts more clear in the future.

Interesting thoughts, but if your life is so devastating that you do not wish to live, then happiness becomes very important or relevant. If happiness is fleeting then we can replace "happiness" for "Joy." Use any word that you like as long as the result is wanting to live.

It's easy to say that I should suffer, quite another thing to actually experience being ignored, neglected and terrified. I'm sure God would say that I'm blessed. Still, I'm trying to look at the "results" in my life and try to relate that to my "actions," as difficult that may be. And I think that I might be closer to obtaining this elusive contentment that I seek.

What does God want for us? What is God's view about happiness, joy, blessed, suffering and sorrow? How can we increase our contentment? These are some of the questions that we will try to answer. To help us we will use scripture, bible commentaries, blog and our real life experiences. Scripture from the King James bible is encouraged. Please include chapter and verse with any scripture that you might want to post and specify if a different translation is used.

This will primarily be a study in Christian views, however I'm also interested in people that have success or failure in finding contentment, along with how it was achieved. This will be an ongoing work in progress and I welcome thoughts about anything related to our goal, in a serious manner.

A lot of people tell me to take drugs or find a relationship to be happy. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

So my advice is get drunk, do drugs, or get sex.

If you're "particularly interested in Christian views," the best way is to die and go to heaven. If your particular sect discourages suicide, reckless self-endangerment is the next best thing. Good luck and godspeed.


ps - Obv, plz no one take this advice. :/

Too late, axe in car

I'm envisioning a Wile E. Coyote-esque killin' machine.

...

Don't grasp on to emotional attachments, you can appreciate things in life alot more if your emotions aren't attached and keep variety in your life, I think this frame of mind helps you to accept and understand change without fear and dispair. Much more peaceful excistence.

There are things you can change, and things you have to accept.

Be in the present; The past and future only exist as concepts in your mind and clasping at these emotions means missing the gift of living mindfully in the present.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present -Oogway, Kungfu Panda

Buddhism has some incredible views that make alot of sense to me and brings me more peace and joy every day, thoroughly recommend listening to Tommy Angelo's Eight Fold Path to Poker enlightenment and read some of the books/websites he recommends

Hope you find what your looking for

LMFAO

I am very sympathetic to your request, though our circumstances are different I have found myself thinking the same thing you are - how can I bring more happiness to my life.

I know you asked for something "preferably christian," but I think there is something nonsectarian that may be of benefit to you, if you are kind enough to read this post. If you read some of my other posts, you can probably guess, in the interest of disclosure. I also have an affinity for Buddhism. So, I offer two things, a way that was taught to me to calm things down by just sitting still, and a talk by a Buddhist nun (don't worry, the Ven. Robina Courtin is not your stereotypical wishy-washy love everything Buddhist nun).

First, meditation really helps and its nonsectarian, who ever wants to can meditate and it crosses all faiths and belief systems. Atheists, the spiritual and the hard.core believers all benefit.

Just sit in a chair, back straight, hands on knees, eyes open or closed, and breath comfortably. And kind of focus on your breathing. When thoughts come in, its ok, notice it, label it as a thought and go back to focusing on your breath.

The idea is to create some space between your thoughts. You won't stop thinking, so don't try to, but put a bit of space between one thought in the next. Don't be hard on yourself - if you have a bad thought, its just a bad thought then go back to your breath. In fact, don't even label good or bad, right or wrong thought - just go back to your breath. 5 minutes a day, that's all. And keep it easy going.

Guaranteed to bring results. If after 2 weeks, you don't feel any different, I offer a money back guarantee - no questions asked. ;-) Now this won't bring immediate happiness, won't stop any suffering, but I think it will help calm some anxieties and stress.

Lastly, Ven. Robina Courtin has some good things to say about ending suffering. Take it with a grain of salt, analyze it - if what she has to say doesn't make sense, no worries go about finding something that does. It's mostly nonsectarian stuff too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nasIq...e_gdata_player


Anyways, best of luck.

One last thought, a good book that helped me was Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst. She is a psychoanalyst, it helped me out, maybe it can help you if you are inclined.