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