When I first started my job here in LA I was only getting three hour shifts during the weekdays. I would have about a two hour gap in between work and school in which I would go to Starbucks and order my venti black iced tea, with more sweetener added than there is tea, and my turkey pesto sandwich. Every payday I would go to the mall, pick up some bath bombs from Lush, and grab some Taco Bell. These things made me happy  and I looked forward to them but then my hours picked up and my money got tight. That was when I learned the difference between happiness  and joy .      Habakkuk 3:17-18 "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the field produces no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior."    Joy is having a cheerful heart even when things in life seem to be crumbling apart.    Happiness is finding contentment

        I've gone back and forth about writing something like this because I am NO relationship expert, or an expert in any category for that matter, but I've noticed an unhealthy mindset in today's world and I hope that we can shift our perspective.     Okay so you're single. It is time to come to terms with that reality. You've been single for an hour to a year. Either way you've already picked out names for your cats and have already tweeted the hashtag '#foreveralone'. I can go on and on about how you are not alone, how you don't need to date now, and so on and so on but today I want to change your perspective on singleness itself. Maybe, just maybe , being single is not the end of the world. Maybe there's actually a sense of joy and productivity  in the season of singleness.    Relationships are HARD work and take time and attention to pour into them, just like any friendship. So you're single, where do you put all this extra time and at

  I feel today's world is filled with an identity crisis. No one knows who they are and "find yourself" has become today's biggest motto and lifestyle. In an attempt to "find ourselves" we seem to throw ourself into the world. This girl or guy can make me feel this way, drinking and drugs distract me from this, my job is my life, and so on and so on. It's like we have to validate who we are as people through all these things in order to feel complete in a sense. How about we begin to find our identity in Christ instead of the world.   Identity:(n) the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.      So who are you?   I'll start. I am a 19 year old cosmetology student living in LA. I'm your host with the most and the short girl that dyed and cut all her hair off.       But I am also so much more than that.    I am a daughter of Christ who was called to LA to be a light to the darkest places. I am a missionary to my industry, work place, and ci