[Note: There are two things you need to know about me before I continue with this article:

• I am a woman of faith
• I was a choir nerd in high school]

Joy and happiness—two emotions that can generally be indicated by the same signs: smiling, laughing, high energy, etc.

However, although these two feelings look similar on the outside, two totally different things are happening beneath the surface.

Now, mind you, I haven't always viewed them this way. I had always believed that joy was simply just a stronger version of happiness. Happiness was just decaf joy. Joy was just happiness on steroids... You get the gist.

It wasn't until I took a choir trip during my senior year of high school that this belief completely changed for me. It was only hours before the concert, and our director was trying to get us to sing one of our songs with the right feeling. The song was a simple one, titled "Sing for Joy!"

He told us that he wanted us not only to look happy while we sang the song, but to look joyful. To help communicate this to the rest of the choir, he asked us what we thought the difference between joy and happiness was.

I ended up never answering his question, because my mind was too busy in the process of being blown. It was re-analyzing everything it had ever known.

You see, my knee-jerk reaction was: "Oh, that's easy. Joy is just a much stronger feeling of happiness." Then I started thinking, and I realized that wasn't true at all.

You see, happiness is something that we can have, but things like sadness, depression, or anger can invade us until, eventually, all of that negativity conquers out our happiness.

But joy...

Joy cannot be conquered, because joy is the conqueror. Joy is not smothered by too much sadness but, instead, drives it out. Joy cannot be overcome by even the sharpest pain, because joy is what we can grasp onto in spite of pain. It is not afraid. It is unshakable. It is indomitable.

And joy is this way, I believe, because it comes straight from God (this is where the woman of faith part comes in). He gives it to us in the morning after we suffer even the darkest of nights. He pours it on us with love when we are hurting. We can use it as our armor against any situation or circumstance that we go through.

Remember: if life has you down and feeling defeated, don't just try to be happy. Be joyful—in the good times, in the bad, during rain or shine, unshakably, fearlessly and indomitably.

"For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." -Pslams 30:5 KJV