[Gary Petty] Have you ever looked at what your friends have, or your neighbors, and you think, "Wow, if I could just have what they have – you know, a new car, or a new iPhone, or computer, or – you know, if I just had those things – why is it that other people always seem to have nicer things than I do?" Well, it sort of reminds me of a story I read many years ago about an immigrant who came to Ellis Island, and all he had was the shirt on his back. And he came into the United States and he worked hard, and he eventually started his own business, and he made enough money to buy a little house and take care of himself and get a small car. And eventually, he was able to actually send his son to college. Well, his son went to college, got a business degree, came home and said, "Hey, Dad, let me look at your books." So he sat down one day and he looked at his books and he said, "You know, Dad, I don't understand – where's your profit?" The man said, "Well, son, I think about how I came into this country," and he says, "I just simply subtract the cost of the shirt I had on my back. Everything else is profit."

What this man had learned is that happiness isn't based on wealth. It's based on our journey of life. Solomon was one of the wealthiest men of his day, and Solomon had all his wealth and all these things, and yet at the end of his life, he felt that something was missing. He wrote about it in the book of Ecclesiastes, where he said, "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income" (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

You know, if you love money, and you love things, the great trap is you'll never have enough money, and you'll never have enough things. It's one of the great secrets to happiness: learn to be thankful for what you have, not be unthankful for what you don't have.

That's today's BT Daily. Join us next time.