What’s a common misconception people have about happiness?
First off, I love this question.
The biggest misconception about happiness is that it’s waiting for you somewhere.
On the other side of the weight loss. The paid-off debt. The healed grief. The thing you’ve been asking God for that hasn’t shown up yet. We treat happiness like a destination, and we spend our whole lives in the waiting room for it.
What I’ve found, not through trying harder but through surrendering completely, is that the contentment I was chasing was never mine to manufacture.
It’s a fruit. You don’t grit your teeth and grow fruit. You stay connected to the vine and it shows up.
The peace I have now doesn’t make sense on paper. I’ve buried people I loved. I’ve had years I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But I’m still okay. Not because my life is perfect, but because I stopped making happiness my goal and started making faithfulness my goal.
Faithfulness to God. Faithfulness to my husband. Faithfulness to my children. Faithfulness to my health and my own well-being. And I found out that joy just kind of follows all of that around.
It’s a beautiful thing. It slowly becomes your testimony. People can laugh at it or mock it, but it doesn’t change what it is. The result of faithfulness is larger than any result I’ve ever chased in my life.
House of Alcina 
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