Nell W. Mohney, adapted from the Introduction:

"In seminars I have conducted over a thirty-year period, I have discovered that the quality most wanted by Americans is happiness. Many of those seminar participants drove to the seminars in luxury cars, and they looked well fed and well dressed. Yet, individually, they often expressed disappointment with life and admitted to having a feeling of emptiness. They wanted, and even felt entitled to, more happiness.

I am one of those who truly believe that the basic answer to happiness is a spiritual one. We are made for God, and as Saint Augustine said, Our hearts are restless til they rest in thee. All parts of our personalities are drawn to wholeness and happiness when Christ is resident within.

In studying the life of Christ, I remembered that although Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, more than anything else he was a person of joy and happiness. Even his purpose in coming into the world is revealed in John 10:10: I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. This abundant life, I believe, is not just in the world to come but in the here and now, where a series of committed choices can cause your spirit to sing."