My challenge for this post: Share a bit of Erica's amazing gift of friendship by sharing how cool my friend Erica is. And now that I've been sitting in front of my computer for 20 minutes trying to think of a way to do this, I think I may succomb to the pressure. Ahh! The pressure! The pressure! Erica is so great, she'd hate the fact that I'm writing a post about her. She hates being the center of attention. Crazy girl, she'd rather serve others. In fact, one of the things I admire about Erica is her persistence in giving credit to God for all that she is and does. This girl, I mean, married matron knows that she is the person she is today because of God's grace, and she's not afraid to gracefully share that fact with others.
I had the honor of being Erica's matron of honor this past weekend (Hopefully I wasn't too matronly!) and the honor of observing her on a day filled with dreams, pressure, joy, friends, family and details, details, details. It truly was an honor to watch Erica and Cornel glorify God together on their wedding day as they welcomed guests not only with speeches, but with joy and as they pointed to God's character instead of themselves throughout their wedding ceremony. Erica walked down the aisle to "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," and her face shone the brightest when we all sang the doxology at the end.
A few things I appreciate about Erica:
- She's gracious. As I said before, she welcomes people with her whole heart and whole smile (no matter who they are--from my grandma to international friends) to the point they feel right at home and honored. She shows interest in whatever others show interest, which makes them feel that much more at home.
- She's graceful. She even took ballet classes for the first time in college just to improve in this category!
- She's full of grace. One of the ways that Erica challenges me the most is in her dependence on God's grace. She knows she doesn't earn God's good gifts, but she fully lives in them, making the most of everything God's given her and enjoying it too!
- She's gutsy. She's willing to eat bugs in a Thai grocery store on a bet. She's willing to explore unknown bike routes in foreign countries resulting in a much longer bike ride than planned. And she's gutsy enough to be vulnerable and share her struggles so that it's clear that God is the one doing such cool things in her life, not just Erica.
- Besides all that, she's got style.
It really is an honor to spend time with Erica. (Cornel is one lucky guy.) She's one of those friends you don't give up once you find them, so even though she just married Cornel and she'll be moving to the other side of the world (again) in the near future, she'll have a hard time getting rid of me.
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