"One of the greatest of all God’s revelations is Father Lehi’s teaching that “men are, that they might have joy.” (2 Ne. 2:25.) Joy is more than happiness. Joy is the ultimate sensation of well-being. It comes from being complete and in harmony with our Creator and his eternal laws.
"The opposite of joy is misery. Misery is more than unhappiness, sorrow, or suffering. Misery is the ultimate state of disharmony with God and his laws.
"Joy and misery are eternal emotions whose ultimate extent we are not likely to experience in mortality...'
Dallin H. Oaks, "Joy and Mercy," General Conference, October 1991.
The finite perspective a lot of times can cause a person to beat themself up... For me, it actually gets me more frustrated when I feel unhappy. It's definitely cyclical in its nature. Elder Oaks' point that while joy is the ultimate object of our existence, it is not even a fully accomplishable goal in mortality. It's both disappointing and encouraging at the same time, because while we can know what it is to be happy in this life, the condition is only a shadow of what that ETERNAL fullness of JOY has the potential to be.
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