"Let me learn from where I have been.."

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd." - Exodus 23.2

     I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I am still alive. A little update about my life: I am still in California, living in Rocklin (north of Sacramento). I have been nannying for  a 12 year old girl and a 6 year old boy. They are both so precious, and if you're my snapchat friend (if you're not then add me - erwatso2) then you should know how precious the little boy is. So life is going good right now.
With the nanny gig, there has also been a lot of things going on. I've been dating - SAY WHAT!? I know what you're thinking, "How does Erika act normal on a date." I don't know. I don't know what I am doing. I'm like an infant trying to walk. Anyways, I have also agreed to go back to camp this summer. So Camp Rim Rock look out, I will be your program director during my 5th summer working for you. I also have been doing a lot of research on what I am going to do after camp; the options are either teach or nanny (possibly on the east coast - holla). So if you stay tuned later on, you may just find out what I end up doing.
     ANYWAYS (enough with the updates).. As you know, I always have the bible verses up above to go along with what I am going to talk about within my posts. The topic this time is not giving in to the crowd. With this, I mean not doing what everyone else is doing; not doing what everyone is saying is the right thing to do; and definitely not doing something that you do not agree with. The past month I have been struggling with just that. Lets just say, the devil definitely has been tugging on my heart more then I want him to. With moving and finding a new job, I have been skipping church a little more then I have wanted to. This has had me second guessing my beliefs and morals on certain things. To not get too personal, I'm just going to say this. I have recently done things that I have soon regretted after doing them. I first asked myself 'Why?. Why did I do this? Did I want to do this?'
At the time, I thought yes. I also thought, everyone else is doing it, so why not me? I pushed my morals under the mat for awhile, and I let the pressure of society's thoughts cloud my judgement.
God has placed guidelines of how a person should act while living here on this planet. We have the option to follow them or disregard them. My whole life, I have tried my hardest to live by these guidelines and I have been doing okay. Though the past couple of months, I have never felt worse. Just by not going to church, not standing up for my beliefs, and giving in to the crowd, my whole demeanor changed.
     Once I realized what I was doing wrong, I found myself slowly mending my relationship with God back together. I never want to feel that way again, and I now know that what I believe in is way more important then what others believe is right.
     Now mending my relationship with God has not been the easiest thing. God easily forgives, but I felt like I need to do more. One way was by adding one more rosary to the one I was doing. I constantly think "What more can I do right now to show thanks for the life I have been given." It's simple; instead of just smiling at the person walking by, say hello. I try to share the joy I find out of life to others who may be struggling like I was.
     You only get one life on this planet. Stand up for yourself and your beliefs, its all you have.

-Erika

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

Let Go, Let God.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4.6-7

WOW, it's been awhile since I have been on here, BUT I'M BACK. This post will focus a lot on how, as humans, we need to let go and let God. This saying comes up in our everyday lives through situations and instances that we can not control. Of course, it is easier to think of this when your frustrated or something particularly doesn't go your way, but it's hard when a big situation arises and you don't always want to say "Let Go, Let God" because you want to fix it and control it now.
That's the problem with our society today. It's all about what's going to happen now, and have a future plan now, and knowing everything about every moment now. This is just my look on life, and you don't have to agree with everything I say, but it is all about the now BUT it's about living in the "now". It's not all about knowing what's going to happen every second of the day, just let go and let God. We read it in bible verse after bible verse "let go of your worries and suffering, and God will carry you through." Now I know that is not the exact words to any bible verse, but it can be summed up in various ways.
A lot of you may know, I have been through a lot of suffering the past couple of years. Believe me, its hard to let go and let God. I thought that I could control my emotions, control my feelings about certain things, and even control the exact way I 'think' I should live this life I have been given, BUT I CAN'T. Of course I have some say in the little things like how I'm going to perform on tests, or what my major will be, or even where I'll be living in a year (and yes those are the little things), but I have no control of how those exact steps are going to fall into place. That is where God comes in, and we have to let him intervene in our lives and help us out.
Today in mass, father talked about how the Lord is willing to help us as long as we ask. The verse Mark 10.51 says it all. "Jesus said, 'What do you want me to do for you?' and the blind man said to Him, 'I want to see'." Jesus gave sight to the blind, giving him the choice to live his life. The blind man chose the life of following Christ. Are we not all blind? Are we not all searching for sight of Christ's works? I believe that we should all take a moment and think about what is blinding us from Christ, and how we can ask for sight to better our faith in the Lord.
I know for me, there has been a lot of up's and down's going on, and I have been wanting to control them all, but I can't. I need to learn to ask for the sight of faith, that I can trust the Lord's judgement in his plan for my life. It might not be the most ideal, but I know it's the life I am suppose to live.

This song isn't a particularly christian song, but I do look at it as a song that is asking to be closer to God. It's this new group I found called The Paper Kites, and I love their music. Check out this song, Bloom:

-Erika Watson

You have a Question? ASK.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matthew 7.7-8)

For those of you who actually read my blog, thank  you, but I just wanted to let you know that this post is kind of like my last one in a way. I talked a lot about asking for help when you needed it the most, and how as humans, that doesn't come easiest to us. Not only is asking for help a hard thing to do, but asking questions in general is something that goes away as we get older. I know a lot of you have experienced that time when a child keeps asking and asking and ASKING you multiple questions, and you wonder how they could have so much to talk about; it's because they are curious. We are all curious in some ways, it's just as children, we are not afraid to ask. As we grow up, for some reason or another, we feel like we are bothersome for asking questions, or that our questions are not important, but they are. How are we going to figure out anything through life if we don't ask questions and know the answers?

Do not be afraid to go and
live your life. 

Through this passage, Christ is telling us that if we do not seek for answers, we will never know. If we do not ask, we will never receive. As humans, we have to break down those barriers and make ourselves vulnerable to asking questions and opening up to others whether it makes you uncomfortable and awkward. And believe me, I have learned to just embrace my many awkward moments and situations.
One example that I have noticed in the past couple of days of how asking questions can change a life, is when I went to talk to  the dean of the School of Education, Dr. Rock. Just one day, I decided to email him and ask if I could meet up. I had no idea what exactly I wanted to talk to him about, just that I had a question about what I was going to do after I graduated. Just through that 30 minute meeting, Dr. Rock had different people I could contact, many opportunities that I could possibly do after I graduate, and he told me that I could come in and talk to him whenever I needed to. Through one simple email and a question, I had some kind of plan for my life after college.
It doesn't take extreme courage to ask a question, yet an open mind to do so. Do not be afraid to make yourself vulnerable to the unknown. We all have to do it one way or another, so do it with an open and steadfast heart. Christ calls us to ask questions, why not answer Him?


Erika Watson

This is your LIFE, are you who you want to be?

"Jesus said, 'Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.' Peter replies, 'Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water.' So Jesus invites Peter to come. Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and sees the wind and waves, he begins to sink. Peter cries out to the Lord, and Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter. As they climb into the boat together, the storm ceases. Then the disciples worship Jesus, saying Truly you are the Son of God."

What are the wind and waves in your life keeping you from following Jesus? This passage is relevant to all of our lives, yet we don't follow it to the best of our abilities. The Lord is there for us and will do anything and everything to help us follow his path, but once we lose sight of the Lord's teachings, that is when we begin to sink in our sins and sorrows. Yet we can all be saved by the Lord if we just ask and pray.
Recently being retold this story a couple days ago at CCM, I have constantly tried to live up to this passage. I have been reviewing the obstacles in my life that are keeping me away from Christ, asking myself "What people are in my life for the betterment of me?" and "How can I change my ways for the betterment of Christ?". Growing up, I always felt the need to belong, just like every other human being; but does that mean having to please everyone in order to do so? Not everyone I meet in my lifetime are going to be my best friend, are going to want to hang out with me, or even like me, and that is what has been my biggest "wave" keeping me from Christ. People are meant to come in and out of our lives, whether they stay there or not is our decision.

Life is too short not
to jump and scream.

That was just one example of what I have been trying to change in order to keep my eyes on Christ. Also, Lent is coming up soon; a time to truly reflect on your own personal life. Jesus gave his life in order to save ours, what can we do to honor that act? I know the biggest question coming up the next few days is "What are you giving up for Lent?" It is always nice to give something up, but you can also do something good instead of giving up something. To give you an idea, I am going to babysit for free. Some couples with children just need time to themselves in order to build on their relationship, so why do they have to pay for that? There are so many things that one can do through this time of forty days and forty nights, but do we have to stop there? Why not keep the good deeds flowing through the next couple of months, years, maybe even lifetime. We have to get out there and at least try to follow Christ's teachings.
What I'm trying to say through all this is that we can no longer be selfish. In order to love yourself and love others, you have to have a strong and loving relationship with Christ first. God gave us the power and will to do whatever we want in this lifetime, why not follow Him in the process? I am.

Through everything you go through, Christ is always there with you, holding you oh so tight!!

Erika Watson