The Good Life

Most of us want a good life and we spend a lot of time and energy in pursuit of it.

A good life for most people would include having money to buy things, living comfortably, choosing what we do with our time rather than having it dictated by financial constraints, being surrounded by people we love and that love us, feeling peace in our hearts, and having a sense of purpose and fulfillment in our life.

If we all want a good life then it's worth asking this question: how do we get it?

There is a pattern for having a good life and it's really quite simple -- focus on helping and serving other people.

Nehor was focused on getting people to pay him money in exchange for preaching. He wanted the good life. His method though was to be selfish and prideful about how great he was. He got the money and immediately started wearing expensive clothes to show everyone he had the good life. He had followers. And when he got in a dispute about points of doctrine, he killed the person he was debating with. So rather than the good life, he ended up being put to death. This is not the definition of a good life. He wanted it but his methods were flawed.

Now the members of the church, the people that did not follow Nehor, were focused on helping and serving other people. That was their focus. They worked hard, they shared their food, clothes, time, and possessions with people in need. As a natural consequence of this they became wealthy. They got the good life.

"And thus they did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did not belong to their church."

Setting our hearts on helping and serving other people has the natural consequence of leading us to the good life as we are blessed spiritually and temporally by God.

- Alma 1: 3,5-6,14,16,26-27,29-31