This is the Secret to A Happy Life

You will show me the path of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. Psalm 16:11

If you could change one thing in your life to become a happier person, what would make the biggest difference?

The Study on Adult Development was begun in 1938 in search of what makes people thrive. It followed eight generations, with a wide range of variables. In the end, the study found what the world’s best-selling book of all time has been teaching for thousands of years. In a word, the secret to a sense of well-being is relationship.[1]

The Bible is that book. In the book’s beginning we find God walking in the cool of the garden He had made, looking for the first humans, calling, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9). We were always intended for relationship, for presence. Of God, the Bible’s Psalm writer declared, “You will show me the path of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Psalm 16:11). Our relationship with God, made possible through Jesus, is first, foremost and forever.

So too, God made us to live in relationship with each other. Scientists found that the type of relationship wasn’t a factor—whether with friends, spouses, coworkers or other types of relationships. God gave us one another to relieve stress and keep us healthy. One of the study’s publishers explained, “If I have something upsetting happen during the day … my body revs up. … If I have somebody I can go home to or call on the phone, I can literally feel my body … go back to baseline.”[2]

The Bible says, “A friend loves for all times” (Proverbs 17:17 NIV) and that “two people are better off than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9a). Anytime you feel stress rising, God welcomes you to pour out your heart to Him (Psalm 62:8). And then, call or text a friend.

[1] Waldinger, Robert, and Marc Schulz. “Lessons for Living a Happy Life, According to Science.” NPR, 5 June 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/06/05/1180213004/lessons-for-living-a-happy-life-according-to-science. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.

[2] Ibid.