Is Money the Source of True Happiness?

SONIA was born in Spain. As a child, she attended the meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses with her mother. But when she grew up, she moved to London, England, and eventually started working in the finance industry as a bond broker.

Sonia loved her job. She was making a lot of money and dealing in huge sums for her clients. It was exciting, and she was successful. Sonia regularly worked 18 hours a day, and some nights she got only two or three hours of sleep. Her job was her life. Then, suddenly, everything came crashing down. Sonia suffered a severe stroke​—perhaps the result of her stressful lifestyle. She was only 30 years of age.

Sonia was paralyzed on one side of her body, and the doctors were not sure that she would ever regain her speech. Her mother immediately traveled to England to care for her. As Sonia began to walk again, her mother told her, “I’m going to the congregation meetings, and you’ll have to come with me because I can’t leave you on your own.” Sonia agreed to go along. What was the result?

“Everything I heard rang true. It was wonderful,” Sonia recalls. “I was happy to accept a Bible study with one of the many who greeted me the first time I went to the Kingdom Hall. My former acquaintances had stopped visiting me, but my new friends were warm and caring.”

Gradually, Sonia’s speech returned, and she made rapid spiritual progress as well. In less than a year, she was baptized. Many of her new friends were in the full-time Christian ministry, and she could see how happy they were. ‘I want to be like that too,’ Sonia thought. ‘I want to give Jehovah God my best!’ Now Sonia serves full-time in the ministry.

What has Sonia learned from her experience? “Although I was earning a lot of money, the stress and insecurity on the job made me worried and unhappy. I’ve come to realize that the most important thing in life is having a good relationship with my heavenly Father, Jehovah. Now I’m truly happy.”

“The love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things,” wrote the apostle Paul. “By reaching out for this love some have been led astray from the faith and have stabbed themselves all over with many pains.” (1 Timothy 6:10) Sonia can vouch for the truthfulness of these words.