Service Equals Joy

We all know that, right?  We all know that when we are in the service of our fellow men we are in the service of our God?  We all know that when we put others needs ahead of our own, we find ourselves and that we find happiness?
I was reading the Visiting Teaching message for June and a quote by President George Albert Smith struck me:  "Our eternal happiness will be in proportion to the way that we devote ourselves to helping others."
I've had a few bouts with depression.  Most of them are hormonal based, so quite honestly, I was a wreck when my kids were little.  I still have a few lingering issues from that (as do my poor scarred -and scared- children).  What always got me functional was something I was told when I was 14-- that I would experience dark days, but if I would not give in to feeling sorry for myself, but serve my fellowmen to the best of my ability, I would feel joy.  I'm not sure I'm there yet.  Then again, joy is probably one of those things like laundry and dishes that have to be done over and over.  Once is never enough to make it through the day. 
Up until reading that quote, I had thought in terms of my happiness here on earth.  There are days.... there are days.  I struggle to put others first.  Oh, I like to be useful, don't get me wrong, but I am slowly learning that part of caring about others is to actually ask them about themselves instead of regaling them with stories about my day.  Then I have to go the extra step of caring about what they did that day-- caring enough to remember it and track it and ask them about it later. 
Learning to have relationships based on service and love is part of becoming like Heavenly Father.  We don't make relationships here for personal satisfaction.  We are renewing old acquaintances or are creating new ones for the eternities.  Either way, our friendships and our relationships are much older than we are. 
"Our eternal happiness will be in proportion to the way that we devote ourselves to helping others."  What we do here should be seen through an eternal lens, not through our finite view. 
We may not be happy here (though Heavenly Father blesses us so quickly for our service that sometimes we don't even recognize it), but what we do here matters in the long run.  Eternal happiness.  That sounds better than a good day.