Happiness

I recently started a new homeschool curriculum with my 4 kids. It's LDS-based and covers science, history, geography, art, literature, and music. We are enjoying it, and I plan to do a thorough review soon.

Until then, if you are an LDS homeschooler, find out more about it at www.latterdaylearning.org.

(If you are wondering what the heck LDS means, it's what we Mormons call ourselves. You can learn more here.)

Today we studied literature for Family School. Each lesson is based on Gospel Principles. As part of literature today, we read The Fisherman and His Wife and Rumplestiltskin. We talked about selfishness and greed and about what brings true happiness vs. what brings short-term pleasure.

Anyway, I've been thinking about that today.

Bubs, who is 9, has a talent for selflessness. He gets it. He thinks about others' happiness before his own. On Wednesday night, he had to get stitches. It was a first for our family.

He had been taking apart on old DVD player, and he left some pieces on the floor in his room. Well, he got startled, tripped, and cut deeply into one of his toes.

It was late by the time he got back from the ER. We were all tired.

The next morning, his sister (Welly, age 7) said that Bubs was sobbing during the night in pain. She told him she was going to wake me up, but he wouldn't let her. He told her to let me sleep because I was up so late.

So unselfish. That's the beauty of it, though. We find true happiness in seeking the happiness of others. When we put our own happiness first, it falls short.