<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">BY-NC-ND 2.0</a>, a.k.a. Music Sharing, license.</p>

Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Ron du Preez

Virtuous Valentine: The Love of Your Life

Communicating In Code: The Secret of the Scrolls

Trip Into the Trinity: Figuring the Unfathomable

Eric Walsh

Bible Study Hour

A Ransom for a Rebel: Bloody Business of the Beasts

Living it Up for the Lord: It’s Crazy to Cling to Cancer

Belonging and Be Living: Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Miracle Makeover: A Lifetime Warranty

The Quarantine Guarantee: The Rest of the Story

James Kyle

Let Your Lawyer Run Your Life: Acquittal is Assured

Griping Over God’s Gifts: A Prophet or a Loss

Interview with Leonard Brand

Secrets of Centenarians: Living Long in Luxury

Interview with Gary Frasier

Interview with Marge Jetton

The Medium is the Message: A Grave Turn of Events

The Ultimate Thanksgiving: Family Friends Forever

Richard Walton

Interview with Leslie Pollard

Cardiology of Commitment: The Heart of the Matter

Bible Ethics Question and Answer Session

Holy Father, thank you so much for the privilege of us spending further time in your Word, understanding you better, getting to know you closer, being able to learn how to reflect Jesus Christ better.

Be with us in these few moments as we reflect on Your Holy Word and on Jesus, the Living Word.

You might have heard the story that kid who was going to go to church 1 day and his mom gave him 2 quarters and there he was walking down the street and you know how kids are playing with the quarters and his mom had said to him, listen son 1 quarter is for you and 1 quarter is to put in the offering plates.

And as he was walking down the street playing with the quarters, 1 quarter he dropped accidentally.

It hit the ground and it started rolling down the road and it fell right into the great and into the storm drain and the kids said, oh 0, there goes God's quarter.

Yes, aren't we to some degree all like that kid?

We want to make sure we have the pleasure, the happiness, the joy.

Contemporary scientists have come up with incredible studies.

I don't subscribe to these magazines but every now and then my eye falls on 1 of them and I say I've got to get that 1.

And here it was January 2005, The Science of Happiness.

And there was like a 60-page spread on it.

And I thought I would share with you just briefly here what have the scientists, contemporary scientists discovered about how you and I seek for, want, hunt for pleasure, joy, happiness and contentment in life.

There was a kid who came here when she was 10 years of age from Russia.

She arrived here in the United States and she says she was greeted by all these smiles.

Now if you've ever been to Russia people are much more serious if I can use that term.

She said she came here and she says these are her words it was so weird.

She saw everybody was smiling and cheer cheerful she was 10 years of age her name was Sonia Lyubomirsky and Sonia Lyubomirsky carried on lived here for a while and continued to study and eventually, guess what folks?

She became a psychologist teaching at the University of California at Riverside.

More than that, she got money from the National Institutes of Health to study different kinds of happiness boosters.

Why are people in the United States smiling and happy?

1 is, she found out there was 1 thing called the Gratitude Journal.

A diary in which subjects write down things for which they are thankful.

She, Sonia, has found that taking the time to conscientiously count their blessings once a week significantly increased subjects' overall satisfaction with life over a period of 6 weeks, compared with a control group that never wrote down why they were thankful for anything.

Gratitude exercises can do more than lift one's mood.

At the University of California at Davis psychologist Robert Emmons found that gratitude improves physical health.

You people on the medical field, listen carefully.

And by the way, I experimented with this myself, not intentionally.

I was in a race, and this guy, 10 years older than I, came and caught up with me.

He said, no, no, come with me, you can make it.

And he encouraged me and I tried and I started to run with him.

Then he told me, I'm a coach of an athletic team.

I thought, man, this guy's in good shape.

But as we ran together, I listened to him.

Almost everybody he passed, he turned to the policeman, he turned to the water person, everyone he said, thank you so much I appreciate what you're doing.

And this guy was like on the happiness gratitude campaign.

And I listened to the coach and I watched him and as we ran I made up my mind that I was going to experiment with the same thing.

And the next time I was in a race I greeted and I thanked people and I found out that I ran better.

This right here the psychologist at University of California Davis says it raises energy levels when you're grateful and for patients you many of you in the medical field you want to hear this for patients with neuromuscular disease, it relieves pain and fatigue.

Next time you want to give a diagnosis and then tell him what to do, say, go ahead, get a journal.

I want to go to, you know, write a to buy some.

When you go, buy a journal and start writing in what you're grateful for.

Okay, now let me give you quickly here the 8, they have 8, the doctor Lyubomirsky has come up with 8 things.

I'm going to quickly give it to you because then I want to go back to the Bible.

What happens if you want to lift the level of your happiness?

Here are the practical suggestions from the University of California psychologist, Sonja Lyubomirsky, based on research findings by her and others.

Satisfaction, at least a temporary boost they say, is guaranteed.

You want to be happy, you want to find satisfaction in life.

Number 1, at the top of the list, count your blessings.

This is from psychologists right here in California.

Count your blessings and then they say 1 way to do this is with a gratitude journal I just mentioned.

They say, these acts should both be random, you know, like you're standing at the checkout counter and there's a woman with her, with a crying child behind you, say, why don't you go ahead?

Random acts of kindness and systematic, like going to give a supper or a meal to somebody who's shut in, who cannot prepare food for him or herself.

It makes a major difference in your life and in your happiness level.

As I walked up here today, I looked across at those gorgeous mountains.

I was raised in South Africa where the only time you see snow is if you got to drive to it.

I mean, I don't understand why people would want to go get cold in the first place.

Back to Menu

Series

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Belonging and Be Living: Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Belonging and Be Living: Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

46m

Stealing in the Church

42m

Hebrews 11- Faith

06 The Faith of Abraham Part 2

43m

Breakout Session C

Being Willing to Fully Invest in All of Our Patients

57m

Your way or YAHWEH?

41m

Faith and Finance

Session 3: Life in Financial Partnership With God

50m

Exodus Excuses

55m

The Sanctuary

10. The Highest Form of Worship

48m

The Basis of Everything

46m

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Bible Study Hour

45m

It's Time Someone Finally Told You the Truth About...

The Human Nature of Christ - Part 2

51m

Sound Doctrine