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.  ...

        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 a...

  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,...

  My senior year in high school my English teacher told me how "outspoken" I was. When he told me that, it was the biggest compliments of my life. As a Christian and a blogger, there is nothing I want more than to be outspoken. So today I'm going to be pretty outspoken and say it how I see it.   I've noticed a problem with Christians today and what I've noticed is we are SO selfish . There seems to be a focus on "what can God do for me today?" instead of "what can I do for the kingdom of God today?" We love to go to church to be filled up but how many times do we leave the building to share about what was done to save us? Matthew 10:5-8 "Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: 'Don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel-God's lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leporsey, and cast out demons. G...

  STORY TIME! When my family and I lived in the Bay Area there was a lake that we would always go to when it was hot enough. This lake was a couple hours away and so all six of us would pack up in my mom's minivan and head off. One specific day that we will never let my sister lived down, we drove by a neighborhood with a sign that said "No Outlet" and my sister, let my clarify, my older  sister horrifyingly asked, "So does that mean they don't have any power?!" Like any family would do, we all laughed. My dad then went on to explain that the sign meant that it was a dead end street/cul de sac not that the houses didn't have any outlets to plug their toasters in to.   This morning I woke up quite early with no plan to do so. Immediately I went on a Twitter rampage on how "I already have my 'lack of sleep' headache" and how today is going to be such a hard day because I'm up early blah blah blah. I stopped myself mid-tweet and though...

   The great thing about going to an AMAZING church service on Sunday and writing my blog on Monday is that I could totally steal the sermon from yesterday. Just kidding... Kind of..      I guess today's post is really more of a reflection than anything else. Like I've said before I really try to be as transparent with my faith as I can be and so today I want to be pretty open about what's been going on in my heart and life.      I remember a time where me and my family where going through a transition time and were stuck in our own wilderness. It felt like every devotional we had as a family was relating to the Israelites wandering through the desert. It took us about three years to reach our promise land and whenever I go through a wilderness I always think back to that time in our lives.     Well here I am back in my own wilderness walking around and around in circles waiting for my time to see my promise land. My life has become a ci...

  I look for my next blog topic in the world around me and this morning I found it through being awoken at 6 a.m. to the intense thunder and lightening. Rain in L.A. is always unusual and when it does rain it's not for very long. Right now it is currently sunny outside and I'm sure tomorrow it will be beach weather. I am happy for the rain but I am also happy that the sun is out so I can drive to school in safety. There are (obviously) seasons in life, some places have all four seasons in one day while others have two seasons split up in the year, but nonetheless seasons are there. Seasons are in our spiritual walk as well.     Ecclesiastes 3:1-11         "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to d...