Below is what I read on adversity and faith:

“Faith reveals that God is doing more in his people than we could ever realize through human understanding alone. When you face situations that seem overwhelming, God can give you the faith to see his plan in action.”

I felt the need to share, as this issue as it is SO very pertinent to my life at the moment. Also, I know I’m not alone in this….Yoo-N-LA covers and pays tribute to individuals who are stepping out and operating on dreams and passions of their own. With that, it has not become uncommon to hear some individuals admit that deviating from the typical 9 to 5 job isn’t easy. In fact, if not countered with a well balanced lifestyle, the continual “grind” can become taxing on one’s physical, mental, and spiritual mindset.

So, just extending to you a bit of soul food by saying, when you face adversity or become weary of pursuing your life mark…trust that the tools you need to be successful will come. All you have to do is stay consistent and position yourself to receive all that God has in store for you.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with a quote for a good friend of mine  Ms. Erin English – “Anything worthwhile is NEVER easy.”

Do you want to live a life that’s worthwhile?? Me to! So keep pushing!!

Nite Yoo!

WRONG! LOL

For those who don’t know, here’s the back ground story of the whole endeavor:

My dear friend Paj volunteered to help me with my logo. We both went into this thinking it’d be an easy thing to do, being that I “knew” what I wanted. I guesstimated we’d have the logo finished over the course of 1 week; however, in reality, it took us about a month….yeah….lol

Wall #1: Revisions, revisions, revisions

Poor Paj and I went through 6 revisions of the first logo. (Mind you , there were at least 6 different styles/revision). We finally”settled” on a logo that we both liked – emphasis on settled. Paj warned me that we could do better, but I wanted to be  done with it. (For those who don’t know, I tend to be a very impatient individual at times).

Against my better judgement, I decided to move forward with the logo. As I began researching the copyright on the logo’s fonts, I quickly learned that one couldn’t just USE someone else’s font by simply paying a small fee. I had to LICENSE the font.

Wall #2: License?…what license? Driver’s License?? I have one of those! Ooh..no?..okay

Well…licensing the font was much worse than I could have EVER imagined. In addition to having to pay a pretty good sized fee, I was told that I needed to let the creator of the font  know how many computers I would be downloading the font onto, as well as how many devices I would be printing the font from…. I didn’t know that yet! LOL I’m still starting up! At that moment, I was still working on getting a host for the website. I quickly became discouraged and extremely overwhelmed with the whole process. In fact, I put the whole logo idea aside for a good 2 weeks. I needed to think.

As I became honest with myself, I had to stop and thank God that the logo didn’t go through. In reality, it wasn’t even what I really wanted. Time to go back to the drawing board.

After researching other logos, playing with thickness and script type and drawing at home or random spots within The Grove, I finally came up with THE logo. It was perfect in every-way. And check this…it only took 2 days to develop!!  Knowing that I had THE logo, I quickly gave it to my friend Josh who then traced it for me. He’s great btw. (Thank you Josh!! Couldn’t have brought this to life without you!) In sum, the whole process took 5 days… just in time, and when I needed it the most! God is good!

My Mom (who’s an incredibly wise woman – plug, I know. Love you Mommy!) made a comment to be about this whole experience that I will never forget. She told me “as long as you’re in God’s will, you’ll notice that things become easy. The moment you step out on your own and try to force things, the more walls you’ll run into.”

Taking from this, it became clear to me that this not my show nor MY magazine. It’s God’s. And that I will continue to hit walls the moment I forget that and try to take matters into my own hands.

What a journey, but what an incredible lesson. I hear you Father.

Until next time! – JJ