Your path is the one God paves..

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3.5-6

     So as you all may know, I have taken a big step in following the path that God has paved for me; I have moved out to California. To say the least, I have not had the best of luck with things, especially finding a job. Lets start off from the beginning:
     Graduating college, I knew that I was going straight to camp to work my "last" summer (who knows if that is true) at camp. Afterwards I had this big plan, I'M TRAVELING ACROSS THE COUNTRY!! Yes, I did it, in my 2 door, lime green, VW beetle. Let's make this plan even more of a dream story and say that I am going to move out to California and pursue the American Dream --- be a nanny. Okay, Lord knows that's not "The American Dream", but it was a close enough step of me saying "I finally have a hold on my life" which is something that I strived to do ever since I started college.

That one time I traveled across the country..

  *background*   Many of you know, there has been A LOT that I have had to deal with going through college, things that I wish I could change if I had the power to. I didn't have the normal 'college life'. I went to community college, then to 4 year, spent a total of 5 years in college, lost my mom, moved out of my home we lived in for 12 years (moved around a lot), and really didn't have stability in my life.
Which takes us back to the 'hold' I was trying to have on my life. Now, raise your hand if you have a hold on your life.. anyone?.. anyone at all?.. nope.. yeah, didn't think so. So why did I think that this was going to solve anything? I have learned that the more I try to take control of my life, the more I lose control of it. I need to rely on God. I need to pray more. I need to lose some of the anxiety of living this "American Dream", and let myself live the "ERIKA DREAM." Now you may ask me, 'What's the Erika dream?' If I knew, I would tell you, but you will have to just wait and find out.
      Our paths are not determined by what we think is right and wrong. Our paths are determined by the faith that we have in God, and the decisions that we make together with Him. If it was up to me, I would travel the world not once, but twice, live in places for 3months tops, and try to see everything I possibly can. Who knows, maybe that will happen, maybe it won't. But as a wise lady told me 'Opportunity knocks lightly, so you better be listening.'

To be honest, I have no idea what my next step will be, I don't know what my next job will be, and I definitely do not know what my next adventure will be. BUT I do know one thing, I know that I will be listening to the knocks of opportunity from God, instead of waiting for the signs that may never show?


Erika Watson

All it takes is a little FAITH..

"Jesus answered, Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as a big as a mustard seed, you can say to the mountain, 'Move from here to there', and it will move. All things will be possible for you." -Matthew 17.20

Graduation day!! 

     So a lot of you may already know, but I am practically driving across the country all by myself to move to California. PLANS? Now that is something that I do not have much of. Plans change, whether you like it or not.  Like the bible verse suggests, all you need is a little faith. Faith is what I have been lacking these past couple months. I thought I had everything planned out perfectly. I had someone traveling with me, I planned the perfect route to take, and I even knew the exact dates of where I was going to be. {Now lets look back at how many times I said "I"..} A LOT. If you haven't notice (which it took me a while to) I don't get to plan my life. My life and journey is all planned according to Him.
     I look back on my "Perfect Trip", and I noticed not once did I pray about my journey. Not once did I consult my Lord, or even ask for help. That is where I went wrong. Journey's are not made with Him, but through Him.

My amazing camp friends I have
spent the last four summers with.

     I have been blessed with so many amazing journey's, that not once did I give all the praise to the Lord. To be honest, I have been pretty selfish, but the thing that has kept me going, has been my mustard seed of a faith. Through it all, because I had a little faith, the Lord has had my back. We go through everyday stressed and worried about the next steps in our journeys, that not once do we think to stop, pray, and put it all into His hands. The Lord knows our plan, we just have to have a little faith, may it be mustard seed side or the size of a mountain.
     This journey is definitely going to be hard for me. I have had to leave some amazing people that I have spent 4 wonderful years with at Ole Miss, and also some life long friends that I have spent 4 wonderful summers with at camp. Not having those constants in my life anymore is going to be hard, but I'm ready. I'm ready to take the next step into the unknown.

"My life may not be going the way I planned it, but it is going exactly the way God planned it."

-Erika Watson

Patient are the Strong

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope." -Jeremiah 29.11

"Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" -Psalm 27.14

A group of us in front of the Harbor
Bridge in Sydney, Australia. 

So talk about a long time since I have posted. From traveling to New Zealand and Australia to starting my last semester in college, a lot of things have happened in my life lately. This is why I have chosen these two bible verses to talk about. As you know, I usually just choose one, but I felt like these two went hand in hand, especially with what I have been struggling with these past few months. 
GRADUATION. That is the topic of discussion on a lot of my friends/seniors minds right now. This is the time when you are officially "grown up", you have to go and find a "real job", and your life pretty much sucks.  So why are we so worried about graduating? Well if you ask me, I'm not growing up, well at least not right now. 
We are all so worried about planning our futures, having a five year plan, and being told that we are suppose to have our futures figured out. NO!!
Okay, I get it, maybe you should have some idea of what you want to do when you graduate, but do we have to plan it down to the details of how long you are going to stay at that job, exactly who you will fall in love with and marry, and how many children you will have in that nice southern house with a porch and a rocking chair. Now don't get me wrong, all of that sounds pretty nice, but who says that's your future? 
We don't just go out and plan our every step without consulting our father, God. He's the one that knows our future, and if we have enough patience to wait for the Lord,  maybe we will then know our future as well. I don't know about you, but as a senior, I find myself counting down the days, wanting to know what's next, and wanting to know "Where do I belong?". STOP RIGHT THERE. That's the thing, we don't know what's next or where we are suppose to be in life, and we will never know our future until it's the present. 
The bible verses I have chosen talks about just that, patience and waiting. In the first one it talks about having trust and faith in the Lord for your future. As long as you pray and have that strong relationship with Christ, He will give you hope for the future. The second verse talks about waiting; not once, but twice. Find courage to trust the Lord in all He does. Wait for your time, and it will come. If you pray about it, do good works for the Lord, and live a life most holy, God will have great things in store for you, I'm sure of it. SO WAIT. 

So there's my summer road trip:
West Virginia to California

Now, I don't want you to think that I am the most patient person in the world, believe me, I'm not. But I have found that prayer helps me with the calmness of patience. These two words, calm and and patience, are probably the two hardest words I struggle with on a daily basis. We all want to know what's next and where we belong in this place called life, but we won't know. And who knows if we will ever know. Our place here on Earth is only short-come for our eternal life in Heaven. 
But before thinking about your eternal life, my advice to you would be to just take it one step at a time, and make smaller goals. For me, that includes planning for graduation, thinking about what's happening this summer, and then road tripping to California. I only have my life planned up to September with little details thought out. 
I know your'e probably thinking, "This girl is nuts." Well, I am. But at least I will have the patience to know that Christ has my back, and He will have yours too. All you have to do is wait. 

Building 429 "Where I Belong"

Erika Watson