Joy of Creation

I think one of the most challenging things to anyone is how to create a life for ourselves that makes us happy. The scriptures talk about this all the time.
"...men are, that they might have joy." - 2 Nephi 2:25

The reason we're here is to have joy. I find for me the greatest joy I can have is by creating. Who hasn't felt that sense of satisfaction after following a recipe and having the brownies actually taste good? Or who hasn't wrote something for school and worked over the details and then felt good after the teacher wrote a little smiley face? I'm an absolute addict to making art- http://eldigitalartist.blogspot.com/. Its not work for me because its a pleasure, a joy. If we look around the world or just at ourselves we can find plenty of things we've created that stir up a sense of joy in us. But alas, there is "opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11). Sometimes by seeking to create happy lives we fill our lives with mundane or trite things that can't give us that satisfaction of joy of creation to our souls.

Satan always offers poor replacements for the real thing. We might think we can create happiness in ourselves by buying it. This is false, we can't replace sincere love for a sincere paycheck. We might think to eat food to fill an emotional void. This is false. Sure, we might be satisfied and a little plump for a bit, but that feeling soon subsides and we're stuck in the same predicament we were in before (only maybe fatter and more in debt). You can't fill your spirit with material things. You may fill your time with temporal things, but, the Lord warns "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal." (Math 6:19)

Of course, the Lord has the remedy. He says "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35). From the things we create, we are expanding who we are. We are giving our life unto others and thus gaining it. Joy comes from the person we create in ourselves.

When I take a picture (or photoshop a picture, as the case may be) I exercise who I am and am showing a little piece of who I am. There is a quote that says something along the lines of "everything you create or do is a self portrait." How can we excuse ourselves from our creations? We cannot. We are bound to them, just as parents are to their children.

What role is the Lord in our creating? He is the Creator. We are a lineage of celestial heritage. He gave us the creating powers we enjoy. Remember the scriptures say we are that we might have joy. Lets now talk about how this joy is not acquired. The scriptures say "Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness." -(Alma 41:10). Wickedness never was happiness but it sure is fun, right? Yeah, I have a scripture for that too-

And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.- 2 Nephi 28:8-9

Notice the doctrines of Satan (and unhappiness) are always vanity centered, consuming for the self, the fleeting things of the world, the fads, the momentary bliss, the trivial, the meaningless and the crude things that flatter our pride, feed our appetites and build up defenses against creating and growing as people. That, is the big difference between the Lord and Satan. The Lord offers us an eternal perspective of joy, while Satan only offers whatever feels good now. On the one hand we are to create, while on the other only to consume to our appetites. We all need to consume, of course, but the problem is when we seek to consume the temporal to our eternal appetites, upon doing that we will be left with an emptiness (once we find out what temporal really means in the eternities). So, the problem with wickedness and why it was never happiness is simply because its fleeting, and destructive to our eternal progress. Its filling our souls with the short lived as a replacement for the eternal life Christ offers.

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." -1 John 5:11

To acquire the eternal joy (eternal life) of the Lord, we can't buy it, we can't sell it, and we can't obtain it through deception or manipulation. We can only create it. By following the Creator, Jesus Christ.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life" - John 14:6

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." -Psalm 51:10

Surely the Lord cares more about us that we know and wants us to have joy, for that is the measure of our creation.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?...For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. -Matt 6:30-33

In other words, worry not to surround yourself with comfort in this life, for the Lord will comfort you and give you what you need to live in this life and the next, if you will put Him first.

"And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." -Mosiah 4:12

Living a Christlike life, faith in Christ, faith in His commandments, doing the things God would want us to do with a pure heart, forgiving, loving your neighbor as yourself, seeking treasure of heaven, turning the other cheek, being humble, being thankful, being virtuous and true, all these things exemplified in the Lord are how we can follow Him and have joy in our creation, or a real and eternal life.