Happiness in Home Life is a State of Mind
© Alfred J. Parker
Very few couples have a definite goal of mental compatibility and the pattern and personal steps that lead to it. Either person feels that because he or she is happy, the partner should feel the same. You must remember that no one can make you happy. Some people could never make you happy no matter what they did; you would not want them to do anything. Other people because of their viewpoint make you very happy. Why? It is a state of mind. It is as well to remember that no one can make you happy, for happiness is a state of your own mind. No matter what others may do, it is not to be expected they can make you happy if you do not desire their attention. It brings it back to self.
First, be happy in your own mind and thoughts and then endeavour to share that happiness with the one you love, and in a measure, with all people. When you are happy you share it and then the other person receives that happiness, for sharing is the happiness.
Mental happiness is one of the highest attainments one can possess, for without mental happiness all other things are worthless. The state of your mind is your life, thoughts, actions, and experience. If you are always desirous of giving, then many of the common misunderstandings will be removed from your life.
Love is complete giving. There is no other alternative. If you are not happy, change your thinking and perfect it. This lesson not only applies to married life but to any association. Love and service always command respect. Too little do people realize the joy of service and giving, and the extreme congeniality in working with others. If each person could attempt to assume his or her own responsibilities for happiness and congenial association without expectation from others, many misunderstandings would vanish like mist in the morning sun. Love, hate, and respect are all planes of mind or qualities of thinking that can be changed. Life's stay is always so short. You have to find as much happiness as you possibly can. It is only a matter of just seeing things in a certain light, that is all. It is only a state of mind.
The husband may come home feeling happy; he may come in feeling miserable. His wife is full of joy seeing him and before he has been home fifteen minutes she hates the sight of him. She wishes he would pack up and beat it and get out because of the state of mind he came home in, or vice versa. Always be careful to think about what you say before you say it, before you utter a word. If you have to say something, do it pleasantly. After all, just think if that person be taken away through an accident or something. Then you might think, "There were so many things I could have done."
It is up to you to do your best or you make the other person's life a prison.