God has a Plan

I have always believed God has a purpose for my life and if my paintings bring someone joy, that is all I can ask for.  I spent many years doing engineering drawings as a Landscape Architect and never felt 'natural' to me.  I always felt I was really out of my element, only coming alive whenever I was called on to render a plan artistically.  Loving plants, it is much more satisfying for me to paint them naturally than to place them in the landscape.  The few art classes I took, the professors questioned why I was in my major and not art.  If given the opportunity, I would love to go back to school and get my masters in art.  Maybe one day soon!

All of this to say to you, if you are fighting what you thought was your calling and hating every day you do it, stop fighting it.  Don't just do what society says is valuable.  My mother said attain the highest degree (that meant be a doctor, lawyer, etc.).  Well, I wanted to make her proud, so I chose the most prestigious degree I thought I may have an interest in.  I wish I had become an artist back then, but God had me on another journey and I value the path He had me on and I can't change it, so I embrace to lessons I've learned.  So maybe part of my calling is to tell young and old, do what you love and you will be passionate and will become who God created you to be!

An example is my son.  His whole life we put him in every sport and outdoor activity from camping to hunting.  He struggled in math in his high school engineering program, but we were trying to find something he would excel in.  My husband finally forced him to take guitar lessons when he was 11.  Well, it stuck.  He wrote song after song and became passionate about his music.  We then told him he had to pick a real career and to look at music as a hobby.  But God had a different plan, because all of a sudden he is being recognized for the some 50 songs he has written and a music licensing company just sent him a contract.  God had a plan for him all along.  It was not a conventional one, but if it's His will, it will be right!