By Elder Quentin L. Cook
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
http://devotional.byuh.edu/node/416 .
The recipe for "the good life" has been debated for centuries. When the Apostle Paul was in Athens on Mars Hill, he encountered "philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks" (Acts 17:18). The Stoics believed that the highest good was virtue, while the Epicureans believed that the highest good was pleasure. Many Stoics had become proud and used the philosophy as "a cloak for … ambition and iniquity." Many Epicureans had become hedonists who took as their motto "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."1
Many in the academic world have long pointed to Aristotle's advocacy of "intellectual contemplation" as a blueprint for "the good life." A reviewer writing in the New York Times Book Review asserted that modern philosophers "have concluded that there is no single right balance of elements that constitutes 'the good life for man.'"2
An article in the New York Times asserted, "Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining personal well-being." The author challenged colleges to spend less time "preparing students for careers" and more time "preparing them to make social decisions."3
As I read these statements, I reflected on what the Prophet Joseph Smith taught: "Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God."4
In the spirit of the statement in the New York Times about marriage and the Prophet's optimistic declaration, I am confident that we can have the happiness that we desire and that God wants for us. What must we do to attain it?