My friends, I have something great to announce: I am happy! Yet I have a twinge in my chest as I announce that, because I am wise enough to know that such a feeling is usually fleeting in such a world as this, but what I resume to say that I have made certain changes and goals for myself that allow me to reach towards happiness on a daily minutia basis. My reservations about happiness include the knowledge that: *The Christian life is not always filled with happiness, but instead pain, constant searching, a denial of self, and giving up of human urges to defend oneself and fight back for the sake of being Christ-like. *Marriage does not = ultimate, immediate, or long-lasting happiness; nor do children. *Family often produces more feelings of pain and heartache, and happiness regarding family is fleeting (in my case anyways) *Opening your heart to friends and family is not always a happy experience, but if your goal is to do so, you must be confident in your feelings ...

It's Saturday morning. I am sitting with my  coffee, apple, and bagel. I am content with my two children across the room playing computer games, and still high from the intimate lovemaking my husband and I shared last night. I am ready to be loved, and I embrace it. I am happy. Why share so much? I am satisfied with food in my belly. I see my babies playing contently. My husband and I are loving to each other. I feel satisfied. That's why I am ready to be loved and ready to embrace it. Daily, I must decide how much I will allow myself to be loved and by whom. Women are notorious for allowing relationships to frustrate and dwindle by placing impossible demands upon their partners for love. Not that women are impossible of being loved by others, or satisfyingly so... women forget that one must self-love to accept outer love. Remember how it felt when your best friend ran to you in school and whispered that someone liked you? You felt giddy, excited, powerful, noticed, and...