Retreat

I just returned from a weekend retreat at Lake Tahoe. The Step ministry leadership team met for a weekend of fellowship, team building, and strengthening our relationship with God. First, is there a more perfect setting for a spiritual retreat than Lake Tahoe? God's beauty surrounds you every moment. For me, being so close to God's creation brings God closer to my heart. I am definitely a nature girl by heart.

So what did I learn? We took personality profiles and it was amazing how correct mine was. I've taken lots of personality profiles before and nothing ever stuck with me like this one. The profile was from a book called "The Four Elements of Success" by Laurie Beth Jones. The elements are Earth, Fire, Water, Wind. I am an Earth-Fire. The main thing I will be working on is how my reserved nature comes off as arrogant or aloof to many people. So I will stepping out of my comfort zone and extending my hand and smile in greeting to those I don't know as well as those I do know. I hold back too much and it will be harder to get my story to people if I am not perceived as approachable. My fellow Earth teammates will be holding me accountable to this goal.

We also took a spiritual gifts assessment. I scored high in administration (surprise, surprise - NOT), faith and discernment. The last two amazed me, as well as showed me in a tangible way how much God has grown me these past few years. I would not have the faith I have now if I had not walked the hard road. God really does grow our character through trials. Now, I can share that I know God will be with people through the darkest days. He is faithful, and I know this not only from reading it in my bible, but from experiencing it. As far as discernment goes, I have had trouble trusting my own feelings and thoughts because I was always told pain wasn't pain, I did not feel that way, molestation was love, and the list goes on. The past several years, people at church have made comments to me about my wisdom and ability to discern the truth about things that happen in group. I won't say that I didn't believe what they told me, but it was hard to accept. However, the more I learn to trust my inner voice, the more I know God is real, the more willing I become to accepting the positive things about myself. So, I was really pleased to know just how much I have grown in those areas of my life. The cool thing is that the more I grow, the more God will give to me to give to others. My spiritual gifts will grow with me.

The last thing we did was to start a personal mission statement. I felt I had a head start on this process because I have been through a mission statement process twice for the school accreditation process. I also have a personal mission statement for my classroom. When I starting the process, I just opened my heart to God. Our assignment was to choose 3 to 4 words from a list that struck us. I probably ended up with about 15, but many of them are closely related. I really felt it was a God thing because it flowed so easily. Most of my words were attached to whole thought. For example, I will help victims through the healing process. Many of my thoughts had to do with taking an active role in helping abuse victims. This leads me to believe that God has plans for me other than what I am doing now. Through my teaching, I have helped about 5 girls over the past 6 1/2 years. That is such a drop in the bucket compared to the statistics. I am excited about where my personal mission statement will lead me. I am waiting on God's plan for me with breathless anticipation. I know he can use my pain for His glory. That is all that matters in the end anyway.

Well, I'm off to my classroom for my first pre-school day of getting ready. More later.