Does God Want Me To Be Happy?

There is article after article about "How To Be Happy!" They all sound so great. Get more sleep, eat better, don't get stressed out. I even found a step by step guide here. But, does God want us to be happy? I believe the answer is yes and no. There are times where God is allowing us to be sad or not happy because He is using that situation to allow Him to work in our life. I have read a lot of quotes lately that say, "Do What Makes YOU Happy!" They sound great, don't they? This morning I paid off our only credit card bill. We have one other small debt and other than our house and we will be debt free! That makes me happy. I have to admit, during the time it took us to pay off the bills we acquired, I wasn't always happy. We we came into extra money, like the amount we got this morning, I would have been really happy to get my yellow Kitchen aid and paid someone to come clean my house and quite a few other things with all that money, that would have made me happy. But I chose to put more important things above my happiness and made the hard decision. I am glad I made that choice. By not allowing "happiness" to rule my life, I made the choice to get out of debt which makes me JOYFUL! Sometimes in life, we don't feel happy with the choices we made. Well, you then have to decide where you want to go from there. If you are in a marriage and you are not happy think about what decision you may potentially make that will irrevocably change the rest of your life. There are joyful days ahead if you just seek the will of God and not allowing the first choice to always be happiness comes first! My dear friend and I are starting a study over The Proper Care &Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I just stared this book and it is already raking me over the coals on how selfish I have been in my marriage. If you are interested in reading this also, pick up a copy or even choose to have it sent to your e-reader like I love to do now! So what do you think, are you trying to hard to be happy?