© Copyright 2013 by William Giovannetti

Published by Bethany House Publishers

11400 Hampshire Avenue South

Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-6261-5

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified GW are from GOD’S WORD®. © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations identified NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®, copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Scripture quotations identified NIV 1984 are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. www.zondervan.com

Cover design by Dan Pitts

Author is represented by Books & Such Literary Agency

For Josie and J.D.

You make me happy by being yourselves.

For Margi

Your smile is all I need.

Contents

Cover    1

Title Page    3

Copyright Page    4

Dedication    5

Introduction: God Is Happy    9

What Is Happiness?    13

The Eleven Secrets

1. Letting Go    19

Think like a pilgrim, holding all things lightly, because earth’s deepest joys are rooted in heaven’s highest blessing.

2. Destiny    33

Nurture your personal sense of destiny, because it toughens you against the storms of life.

3. Consistency    51

Be consistent with God, over time, in all the areas of life, because your internal contradictions make you nuts.

4. Loyalty    67

Reciprocate the immeasurable loyalty of God to you by your own loyalty back to him, because moral shortcuts make happiness fizzle.

5. Endurance    81

Keep faith with God in the in-between times because, for God, time is not a complication in the achievement of your dreams.

6. Trust    95

Rest in the providence of God, because your happiness depends on trusting a God who simply cannot fail.

7. Closure    113

Close the books on unresolved guilt and shame, because those loose ends only guarantee misery.

8. Identity    125

Know the riches of your new identity in grace, because you are who God says you are no matter what anyone else says.

9. Wisdom    139

View your life and adversities from heaven’s perspective, because your life’s happiness is a subplot in God’s cosmic plan to bless the world.

10. ...