Even though it was a joy, it took some serious grace to make it through last week. Annette and I, our 6 kids, 4 in-laws, 5 grand kids and 1 nanny made the annual pilgrimage to Hilton Head Island. You wouldn’t believe how much food, laundry and dishes 18 people can go through in a day. Yep, even my heart healthy food vanished without notice.
I knew it was worth it, but I didn’t see just how life-changing these family trips can be until I read through this one-of-a-kind research study:
In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy, entered Harvard College. They were bright, polished, affluent and ambitious and had been selected as the most well adjusted for a 70 year study of “the pursuit of happiness.”
Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. The results from the study are captured in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?”
However, the key lesson:
Happiness isn’t about me!
Here are a few key insights to guide our lives…and vacation objectives:
93% of the men thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or a sister.- The quality of their relationships at 47 correlated with the quality of life in their later years.
- It was the power of relationships, not intellectual brilliance or parental social class, that led to happiness and successful aging.
The study suggests that a fulfilling life is about work, play and loving others…but love is most important. Didn’t the apostle Paul say something similar in I Cor 13?
I’m finally getting it now that I’m back home. Piles of sandy flip flops and counters stacked with dishes may be good indicators that we’re on the right track for healthy kids (and parents).
Is there a powerful lesson and opportunity here for the church as well?
I John 4:7-8
