Happiness

Question: Are we meant to be happy ourselves?
I have thought about this question a lot and on several occasions and I came to a realization that lead to my answer. At times I consider myself to be a leader which is where my answer is aimed. For leaders, I believe our purpose is to serve. At different times the service will be different and maybe even sometimes unpleasant but does that mean we shouldn't partake? If you are serving others and making their life better I personally believe it is all worth it. I am meant to to serve God in all that I do, we all are, but the capacity will continuously change. This question lead me to thinking of change and temptation. When we decide to live a new life, a life that will look even the slightest bit different from the one we currently live, people will criticize. This is human nature, not because they necessarily disapprove but because they do not understand and that is okay, we must learn to take their words with a grain of salt. But once we have made that decision to change there will be evident temptation everywhere we look; at some point we will be forced to look temptation in the eye and simply say no. To live for the future and for the betterment of ourselves and our society we must learn to control our urges and temptations. I have chosen to change many times in the past but I have fallen off of the wagon so many times that I thought it was impossible to get back on the right path, I was wrong. God is forgiving always, He is loving always.
I believe making others happy will in turn give me happiness. We are not meant to be happy all the time but in the moments we are, they will be extreme and enough. After all, life is only a series of moments, small and intense moments. If we look back on those moments and see that we have made an impact then, in the moments of stress and ridicule, we can realize that our good days our weigh the bad and we can see that in the end it was all worth it. Happiness means different things to different people. What does it mean to be happy, I mean really, truly happy? What makes a person so unhappy they decide that they have had enough and that no one can help them come out of the darkness? What makes a person choose to be unaccepting and mean to another person? Could it be their own unhappiness? And can a person who chooses to be different ever truly change?

I hope the answer is yes...