Joy in the Success of Others


 Yesterday was an interesting day.  My girls had entered a gingerbread contest and advanced to the final round thanks to many loyal family and friends voting for them. 


They were disappointed and dismayed to come up short and in second place miss out on the $2500 prize. I felt for them, as they had some technical difficulties with the host site.  Kyrie had a good portion of her school trying to vote with  only a small percentage getting through.  But when the time ran out, the other contestant had more votes.  Game over.  And my heart ached for them. 


Just a few hours later their brother was chosen from the student section at a BYU basketball game to take a half court shot.  He stepped up and like he had hundreds of times in his teen years, launched the ball which came down in a perfect swish.  Nothing but net and an $8000 prize! 


After weeks of so much loss, disease, death, marital struggles, and so many other issues in close friends it felt so very good to feel joy watching him scream and yell in celebration.  His energy  has been contagious since he was a toddler and watching him celebrate made me relive some moments of joy.  I also had many friends reach out in sincere happiness for his good fortune. 


I thought about that a lot today.  And how some days we put in the time to try and build something, we do all the leg work and it just doesn't work out how we had hoped.  It can feel like someone else gets the prize we so desperately needed or wanted. 


And other times an opportunity pops up and we receive immediately apparent blessings.  It isn't usually $8,000 for me; in fact I get excited if I find a forgotten $10 bill in my jeans pocket! 


But I do know all things are for our experience.  And sometimes in the midst of a lot of discouraging events, to laugh and smile and cheer for another's good fortune can be a beautiful blessing of its own. 


But goodness to another can also be a source of envy and discontent.  That can be a challenge for me.  Elder Holland reminded us that Nephi promised, "Hath [He] commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness?” Nephi asks. No! “All … are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden [at His hand].


All partake of His goodness.  It's just going to be in different ways at different times.  We all need joy and reasons to smile.  And the more people we are able to genuinely be happy for when they find success, the more moments of joy we will experience.

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