Young Ones, Your Creator Wants You to Be Happy

1, 2. Why is it wise to listen to your Creator when choosing what to do with your life? (See opening pictures.)

IF YOU are young, you probably get a lot of advice about your future. Teachers, guidance counselors, or others may tell you that you need to get a higher education or a career that will help you make lots of money. But Jehovah gives you different advice. Of course, he wants you to work hard at school so that you will be able to make a living and support yourself. (Colossians 3:23) But he also knows that when you are young, you need to make important decisions that will affect your future. So he provides principles to guide you and help you to live your life in a way that will please him during these last days.​—Matthew 24:14.

² Remember that Jehovah knows everything. He knows what will happen in the future, and he knows exactly how close the end of this system is. (Isaiah 46:10; Matthew 24:3, 36) Jehovah also knows you. He knows what will make you happy and what will make you unhappy. Human advice may sound good, but if it is not based on God’s Word, it is not truly wise.​—Proverbs 19:21.

3, 4. How did listening to bad advice affect Adam and Eve and their children?

³ Bad advice has been around for a long time. Satan was the first one to give humans bad advice. He told Eve that she and Adam would be happier if they decided for themselves how to live. (Genesis 3:1-6) But Satan was selfish! He wanted Adam and Eve, as well as their future children, to obey and worship him, not Jehovah. But Satan had not done anything for humans. It was Jehovah who had given them everything they had. He gave them each other, a beautiful garden to live in, and their perfect bodies that could last forever.

⁴ Sadly, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. By doing so, they cut themselves off from the One who gave them life. The results were tragic. Like flowers cut off from a plant, Adam and Eve slowly grew old and died. Their children suffered too, and that includes all of us. (Romans 5:12) Most people today ignore what God says and do just what they want to do. (Ephesians 2:1-3) What are the results? The Bible says that “there is no wisdom” when people oppose Jehovah.​—Proverbs 21:30.

 5. What confidence did God have in humans, and was he right?

⁵ Jehovah was confident that there would be people, including many young ones, who would want to know him and serve him. (Psalm 103:17, 18; 110:3) These young people are very precious to Jehovah! Are you one of them? Then you are certainly enjoying many “good things” from God, and this adds to your happiness in life. (Read Psalm 103:5; Proverbs 10:22) We will discuss four of these things. They are spiritual food, good friends, meaningful goals, and true freedom.

 6. Why should you care for your spiritual need, and what does Jehovah provide to help you?

⁶ Animals do not have a spiritual need, that is, they do not feel the need to know their Creator. But we do. (Matthew 4:4) When we listen to God, we gain insight, wisdom, and happiness. Jesus said: “Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need.” (Matthew 5:3) God gives us the Bible and uses “the faithful and discreet slave” to provide publications that help us to strengthen our faith. (Matthew 24:45) We call these publications spiritual food because they nourish our faith and make our relationship with Jehovah stronger. We enjoy a rich variety of spiritual food!​—Isaiah 65:13, 14.

 7. How will spiritual food from God help you?

⁷ Spiritual food can give you wisdom and the ability to think clearly, which can protect you in many ways. (Read Proverbs 2:10-14.) For example, these qualities will help you to recognize lies, like the lie that there is no Creator or the lie that money and material things will make you happy. These qualities will also help you to avoid desires or habits that will hurt you. So do all that you can to become wise and to think clearly. Then you will see for yourself that Jehovah loves you and wants what is best for you.​—Psalm 34:8; Isaiah 48:17, 18.

 8. Why should you draw close to God now, and how will this benefit you in the future?

⁸ Soon, every part of Satan’s world will be destroyed. Only Jehovah will be able to protect us and provide the things we need, which may include our very next meal. (Habakkuk 3:2, 12-19) So now is the time to draw close to God and strengthen your trust in him. (2 Peter 2:9) If you do, then no matter what happens around you, you will feel like David, who said: “I keep Jehovah before me constantly. Because he is at my right hand, I will never be shaken.”​—Psalm 16:8.

 9. (a) As we read at John 6:44, what does Jehovah do? (b) What is special about meeting other Witnesses?

⁹ When you first meet someone who is not in the truth, how much do you really know about him? You may know his name and what he looks like, but probably not much more. It is very different, though, when you first meet someone who is in the truth. You know that he loves Jehovah. You know that Jehovah saw something good in him and invited him to be part of his family of worshippers. (Read John 6:44.) No matter where that person comes from or how he was raised, you already know a lot about him, and he knows a lot about you!

10, 11. What do Jehovah’s people have in common, and how does this affect you?

¹⁰ As soon as you meet another Witness, you know that you already have the most important things in common. You know that even if you speak different languages, you speak the same “pure language” of truth. (Zephaniah 3:9) This means that you both believe in God, you live by the same moral standards, and you have the same hope for the future. These things help you to trust each other and build a strong friendship that will last forever.

¹¹ So when you worship Jehovah, you can truly say that you have the best friends. You have friends all around the world, even if you have not even met them yet! Can you think of anyone other than Jehovah’s people who enjoy this precious gift?

12. What meaningful goals can you set?

¹² Read Ecclesiastes 11:9–12:1. Do you have any goals that you are trying to reach? Maybe you set a goal to read the Bible every day or to give better comments or parts at the meetings. Or perhaps you are trying to use the Bible more effectively in the ministry. How do you feel when you notice that you are improving or when others tell you that you are? You probably feel very happy, and you should! Why? Because you are doing what Jehovah wants you to do, as Jesus did.​—Psalm 40:8; Proverbs 27:11.

13. How is serving God better than focusing on goals in this world?

¹³ When you focus on your service to Jehovah, you are doing work that will make you happy and give you purpose in life. Paul advised: “Be steadfast, immovable, always having plenty to do in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in connection with the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) But when people focus on goals in this world, like making money or becoming famous, they are not really happy. Even if they are successful, they often feel empty inside. (Luke 9:25) We learn this from the example of King Solomon.​—Romans 15:4.

14. What can you learn from Solomon’s experiment?

¹⁴ Solomon, who was one of the richest and most powerful men who ever lived, did an experiment. He said to himself: “Let me try out pleasure and see what good comes.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1-10) So Solomon built luxurious houses, designed gorgeous gardens and parks, and did whatever he wanted. Did he feel satisfied and happy? When Solomon looked back on everything he had done, he said: “I saw that everything was futile.” He added: “There was nothing of real value.” (Ecclesiastes 2:11) Will you learn this lesson from Solomon’s experiment?

15. Why do you need faith, and how will it help you, as we learn from Psalm 32:8?

¹⁵ Some people learn lessons in life only by making mistakes and suffering the bad results. Jehovah does not want this to happen to you. He wants you to listen to him and obey him. This takes faith, but you will never regret the choices you make in life because of your faith. And Jehovah will never forget “the love you showed for his name.” (Hebrews 6:10) So work hard to build strong faith. Then you will make good choices in life and see for yourself that your heavenly Father wants what is best for you.​—Read Psalm 32:8.

16. Why should we value freedom and use it in a wise way?

¹⁶ Paul wrote: “Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) Jehovah loves freedom, and he created you to love freedom too. But he wants you to use your freedom in a wise way that will protect you. Maybe some of your peers look at pornography, are sexually immoral, risk their lives in extreme sports, or abuse drugs or alcohol. At first, these things may seem fun or exciting, but they often lead to bad results, such as disease, addiction, or even death. (Galatians 6:7, 8) Young people who are involved in these things may think that they are free, but they are not.​—Titus 3:3.

17, 18. (a) How does obedience to God make us truly free? (b) In what way were Adam and Eve more free than humans today?

¹⁷ On the other hand, obedience to Jehovah is good for us. It is good for our health and makes us truly free. (Psalm 19:7-11) And when you use your freedom in a wise way, that is, when you choose to obey God’s perfect laws and principles, you show both God and your parents that you are a responsible person. Your parents will probably trust you more and give you more freedom. And Jehovah promises that soon he will give all of his faithful servants perfect freedom, which the Bible calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”​—Romans 8:21.

¹⁸ This is the kind of freedom that Adam and Eve enjoyed. In the garden of Eden, there was only one thing that God told them not to do. They should not eat the fruit of one particular tree. (Genesis 2:9, 17) Do you think that God was being unfair or too strict by giving them that law? Of course not! Think about how many laws humans have made and forced others to obey. But Jehovah gave Adam and Eve only one law.

19. What are Jehovah and Jesus teaching us that will help us become free?

¹⁹ Jehovah is very wise in the way that he treats us. Instead of giving us many laws, he patiently teaches us to obey the law of love. He teaches us to live by his principles and to hate what is bad. (Romans 12:9) In the Sermon on the Mount, his Son, Jesus, helped us to understand why people do bad things. (Matthew 5:27, 28) And in the new world, as King of God’s Kingdom, Jesus will keep teaching us to view right and wrong as he does. (Hebrews 1:9) Jesus will also make us perfect in our mind and body. Imagine what it will be like when we are not even tempted to do bad things and we do not suffer because of being imperfect. Then, at last, we will enjoy “the glorious freedom” that Jehovah promises.

20. (a) How does Jehovah use his freedom? (b) How can you imitate him?

²⁰ In the new world, our freedom will still have limits. In what way? We will always need to be motivated by our love for God and for others. When we are guided by love, we are imitating Jehovah. Even though Jehovah has complete freedom, he chooses to let love guide everything he does, including the way he treats us. (1 John 4:7, 8) So it makes sense that we can be truly free only when we imitate God.

21. (a) How did David feel about Jehovah? (b) What will we discuss in the next article?

²¹ Are you grateful for all the good things that Jehovah has given you? He has given you spiritual food, good friends, meaningful goals, the hope of perfect freedom in the future, and many other wonderful gifts. (Psalm 103:5) You probably feel like David did when he prayed in the words found at Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life. In your presence is abundant joy; there is happiness at your right hand forever.” In the next article, we will discuss other precious truths from Psalm 16. These will help you see how you can have the best life ever!