God’s children and their happiness are my reasons for being.

The line frames Skelton’s sense of vocation in explicitly religious and humanitarian terms: his “reasons for being” are not fame, money, or even artistic achievement, but the well-being of “God’s children”—a broad, egalitarian way of referring to all people. Read this way, the quote casts comedy and public performance as a form of service, where making others happy becomes a moral duty. It also reflects a mid‑20th‑century American idiom in which faith language often underwrote civic virtues like kindness, optimism, and care for ordinary people. The emphasis on happiness suggests an ethic of consolation: easing burdens through warmth and laughter.