Armor Up

For the past 8 years I have been serving the high school ministry at our church. But last November I felt God shifting my heart and I felt I was to go and serve in our women’s ministry. This was a change I didn’t see coming for myself, but in April of this year I fully changed over. The Lord has been so gracious to confirm I did make the right move. It’s been amazing to see Him going before me and confirming along the way that I did indeed hear him, and that I did indeed make the right decision by coming to women’s ministry. I have been given some opportunities to step out of my comfort zone & step into places where all I can do is rely on God because I have no clue what I am doing. That’s not a very fun place to be as a leader either. You want to feel like you at least have this semi together and that you are worth following, but I have found myself smack down on my knees learning a ton and being shaped and molded like never before. 

You see we are doing the study, Armor of God, by Priscilla Shirer. You guys---it is rocking me; in SUCH a good way. I feel like I have been awarded an opportunity to take this past year of struggling with fear, and really face it head on with this study. I feel like I am being equipped to do something about it! 

We have become a culture that is relatively unaware of the enemy’s presence, unaware of his conspiracies to destroy our lives, unaware the he’s distracting us from reaching our destinies. We tend to rely most on what is visible and physical, instead of zeroing in on the invisible & the spiritual. I have been learning that the attacks of the enemy are always wrapped in the packaging of deception, always designed to manipulate the truth about God and about you (me). The evil temptations that appeal to my/your specific desires are not accidental. The discord and disharmony that threaten your most valuable relationships are not coincidental. The temptations that tug at you during your weakest moments are not uncalculated. 2 Corinthians 10:3 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.” Meaning there is a bigger fight going on that we don’t see in the physical world. We still have to deal with the physical ailments, environmental evils, and relational hardships of this plant, but if you are in Christ & you have a personal relationship with Him—we always have hope! 

The main thing that I have been struggling with this past year is my mind. I will go from zero – death in milliseconds! You name it; I have played out the scenario in my head. Most of the time when these thoughts come, I have already gone down the death path before I even REALIZE what I am actually thinking about. This study has been bringing that to light in my life. One thing that has really made an impact on me is this quote by Priscilla…..speaking to followers of Jesus…. “Satan knows that he cannot destroy you….the best he can do is to make your time here on earth futile and unproductive, to suffocate you with sin, insecurity, fear, and discouragement until you are unable to live freely and fully. He can’t “unseat” you, but he can intimidate you and render you ineffective and paralyzed.” This is another goal of Satan, “He knows that you, as a follower of Christ, cannot be destroyed. But he has other goals in the meantime: to distract you, discourage you, divide you from others, and disable you from experiencing everything that is rightfully yours as an adopted member of God’s family. He wants to terrorize you until you’re rendered incapacitated, miserable, and incapable of living in the benefits of a victory that has already been won.”

I can honestly say this past year I have been hit hard with insecurity, fear, and discouragement. I have been distracted, divided from others, and I have been disabled from experiencing everything that is rightfully mine as an adopted member of Gods family. Which, like Priscilla has said, renders me incapacitated, miserable, and incapable of living in the benefits of a victory that has already been won! I have been in some of the worst places in my mind lately, which has made me place blame and judgment on completely innocent people--simply because I have not have had self-discipline with my mind. Or because I haven’t been recognizing what has been actually happening….the enemy is the master at choosing the right kind of bait to snag you! He carefully considers and calculates your current situation, taking into account your weaknesses and strengths, your interests and tendencies, your history and past abuses…everything and uses this information to craft a specific strategy to hook you and reel you in. most of the reason why he gets the best of us so often is because we make his job way too easy for him. 

I am done making his job easy. I am done being deceived in my mind. I am done allowing these thoughts to develop into full blown accusations toward innocent people. I am done allowing mind to divide my relationships based of fabrications. Ephesians 6:10-19 tells me how, and tells me everything I need in order to be successful in this. The Truth of God’s word is mine/our core support. Its what makes everything else fall into the appropriate place. Without Gods word, there is no true compass to go back to. Truth—which we could basically define as God’s opinion on any matter—is our standard. Truth is who God is and what He says it is, which best summed up for us within the Person of Jesus Christ. With the standard of truth in place, you can adjust everything else in your life—your ambitions, choices, and feelings; your MIND, will and emotions—until all of it is tuned correctly. When you have a strong stable, well supported core, you can’t easily be lead astray by the enemy’s clever lies. Gird yourself with truth, and you’re on guard from the word “go.” Freedom comes when we unapologetically follow the truth that we discover in Him and in His word. That is what makes the difference. That is what disarms the enemy’s influence and his impact in our lives. 

And I want to end with one more quote from Priscilla Shirer: 

“Refuse to be a woman who walks around with a Bible under her arm but doesn’t actually stand firm on it, affirm it, and actively support it. Instead, ask the Lord to give you the courage to hold it up as a banner over your life.” 

And ask the Lord for courage is exactly what I plan to do! 

*all italicized words came directly from the Armor of God workbook study

Acknowledge & Embrace

Yet again it's been awhile...I would love to blog more than I do, but life seems to go by faster and faster with each month and because of that somehow I have found myself almost mid August! 

This summer has been so wonderful. A small confession & reason for that is because we are back down to a 2 child household again after the past two summers where we had 4 children all summer....If I may be honest....its been amazing. I just am a two kid mom. I get two kids. I can do two kids. I can hold one and hold the hand of the other. I can find time to clean & find time to play. 

Because of this being a much easier summer too, my husband & I decided to give ourselves a treat....after 3 years of no vacation to speak of & 13 years of not being back to a tropical island, we finally on an....wait for it.....adult vacation!! We went to Aruba! Oh my goodness I could bore you all day long with how amazing this trip was! So many reasons, but the main reason is because we took an entire week to invest in our marriage. And rest. And relax; together. 

That is the thing we haven't been really good at since kids came into our journey. We just haven't really known how. Well now we do & I can assure you there will be more tropical vacations to come! 

Another reason it was so good was because I feel like the fog has lifted in regards to the fear I have been battling. (I am almost feeling fear as I type that, because now something is going to happen & bring the fear back, just because I said that!) As I sat in Aruba and was just resting, one thing I noticed was the looming fear that had been clouding my judgement this past year, wasn't there. I felt so peaceful, I felt rested, and fear was never a category for me there. I was actually enjoying life! Fear has crept in my life since the day my Father past away & I have been trying to manage it the best I know how. God, so gracious and sweet to me always, had to gently remind me of how important prayer is. Yes I prayed about the fear going away, but it was as if my mind was so jaded by fear that I didn't realize I wasn't truly praying for the fear to go away....I was so consumed by it that I didn't realize I wasn't fully asking for his help. He showed me that the only person on earth that can stop my prayers is: ME.  He also showed me that I have a part to play in prayer as well & that is that I am to actively acknowledge & embrace my prayers. Instead of clamoring to receive an answer as to why I am struggling, I am to ask God with a calm and trusting heart...thanking Him in advance and believing that I will receive what I need.  My job is to acknowledge and embrace prayer. Let's never get so old or sophisticated that we forget to come to Him as little children do. God loves you. God loves me. He loves our company and spending time with us, searching the depths of our souls, and hearing the dreams of our hearts.  

"He protects His flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment." Isaiah 40:11 

Maybe for you, like me, it's time to get back to acknowledging and embracing the prayers of our hearts. 

Fear Not: Breaking Fear Down

For those of you who do not know me, which is probably all of you, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Janna, I have been married to my husband for 13 years this past April! Together we have two girls, who are 5 & 3, and I am a follower of Christ and deeply in love with my Jesus. I was born and raised in a Christian home; to which I am extremely thankful for my story; it’s a story that is so few and far between these days and I’m thankful.  My husband compares my upbringing to that of the Cleavers from the Leave it to Beaver show….for those of you who do not even know what that show is….well I’m showing my age, and you can look it up here. Up until March 20, 2015, my life has been pretty easy. Sure there have been things where I’ve made bad choices and messed up and all those things, but nothing really major has happened in my life, until last March. 

March 20, 2015 is a day that I will never forget. It was the day I got the call from my brother that my father had passed away. You see, he had been fighting the battle of MSA for 4 years prior to the call. We knew what was imminent. We also knew there wasn’t a cure for this disease, and we knew and trusted that if God wanted my Dad home, he would take him at the right time. But you know, no matter how much you think you are prepared for something like that, you aren’t. The call was just as heartbreaking as it would have been had my dad not had a terminal illness. The hardest part for me was that I live in Virginia and my parents are in Colorado, so I had booked a plane ticket to go visit my Dad because we knew his time was short so I wanted to get out to see him again. My flight was on a Tuesday, and he passed away four days before my flight was scheduled, on a Friday. I was devastated. “I was coming to see him, I was coming to see him,” was all that I could get out between my cries and grief. Losing a loved one is something I have never experience up until this point I life. I had no context for grief or sadness like this, until that day. 

What I didn’t expect to happen in the days and weeks to follow was, again, something I didn’t have much of a context for in my life; fear. Through this process of grief, fear grabbed ahold ofme. I have never grieved the loss of someone close to me so I didn’t know what to expect when it came to the grieving process, and I certainly didn’t know that fear could or would be a part of it. For the next few months I found myself fearing death. Fearing the unknown…fearing the questions that, “Ok if I’m a follower of Christ and I KNOW there is a God, and my Dad knew Him…so that means he is WITH God…..so what is he doing!?!? Like RIGHT NOW what is he doing??”  The questions rolled around in my head over and over creating a snowball effect. I know that the Bible describes heaven as this amazing place, but my human mind could not wrap my head around it. I wrestled through that and God in all his loving kindness revealed, yet again, to me that he is trustworthy. If he can be trusted in this life, which I 100% do trust Him, then why can’t he be trusted in death too? There was no answer other than, “You can be Lord.”

So the fear of death subsided some, but manifested itself in other areas. You name it, I feared it. From being robbed, jumped, shot to death, to being in a terrorist attack, attack on my kids, my husband, friends, fear of large gatherings of people, looking for the exits, what do if this, what to do if that….on and on went my mind as it was crippled by fear. Which is understandable too because this stuff is happening more and more frequently & feels like it's getting closer and closer to me. So that in itself makes it hard to not allow fear to settle in & take up residence in my mind. 

I want to define the word fear so we know exactly what this word means as we take time today to break it down. Fear is defined in Merriam-Webster as: 

• to be afraid of (something or someone)

• to expect or worry about (something bad or unpleasant)

• to be afraid and worried

I love the last bullet point, to be afraid and worried, because yes that is exactly what I was. I was afraid of so many things, and I was worried about all the other things. You guys, I was staying in my house avoiding going to things in fear that an attack would happen when I was there! When I say I was crippled by fear, that is exactly what I was; crippled. 

Maybe for you, where you currently sit, this isn’t something you have faced. This isn’t something that you have wrestled through;to you I want to say--thank God for that! That is a blessing and one I hope you never do have to wrestle through. 

My guess though, is that many of you have been. Many of you know exactly what I’m talking about when I describe what it’s like being crippled by fear. When it has its claws so deep in you, you don’t know what is true and what isn’t anymore.  When you are avoiding things because you are afraid of….any number of things from, something bad happening, or to even just being around a large amount of people.

Maybe for you it’s the not the fear of something bad happening but it’s the fear of being vulnerable. It’s the fear of letting someone else in to your deepest thoughts. Fear that if another human really knew what went on in your mind, they would judge you, or have you committed. 

Maybe it’s the fear of being hurt by another person? Fear of trusting another person; you’ve been hurt by someone before you and refuse to allow anyone the space to hurt you again?

Maybe it’s the fear of feeling like you don’t have a purpose, not being used by God like you wished you would be? Maybe it is the fear that God would ask you to do something that is going to require a sacrifice on your part? 

Whatever fear you face today, I want to invite you on a journey as we discover what God has to say about fear, and how to navigate life through your fears. 

So join us in the next post as we take a look at Fear Not: You have a choice. 

Much love!

xo

 

 

Fear: You have a choice

For those of you just joining us, this is the first post that I have wrote that builds off a previous post. The last post we took a look at fear and broke it down…so you will want to jump down and read that one first. 

In this post I want to take a look at fear again, but bringing to light a few things, the first being, when it comes to fear—we have a choice. 

Now some of you may read that and think what? How on earth do you have a choice when it comes to fear? I didn’t know, or didn’t realize that either, until I listened to the talk Tough AsNails by Andy Stanley, the lead Pastor of North Point community Church. I would encourage you to listen to the 3 part series, he does a much better job at accurately articulating this, but I’m going to do my best in relaying what I learned through it. 

As people who follow Jesus, we are following a man’s example and striving to be just like him. That is the goal as followers of Jesus. It is important to know that Jesus, came to earth in human form. He had all the same feelings, emotions, trials, temptations as us, yet he did not sin. Jesus is the founder and the author of our faith and this man was extraordinarily bold! He was so brave. Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends, he was wrongly accused, he was flogged, and on top of all of that he WILLINGLY walked to the cross. For me, for you, for all of humanity—so that, we could have a way to be in eternity with God. A sacrifice had to be made and he, in his perfection, was that sacrifice. 

I’m sorry but that is a man who is braver that brave, and stronger than strong, and he more than proved that fear is optional. Can you put yourself in his shoes just for a minute…just because he was God in human form, does not mean that he didn’t feel the same things we would be feeling….heartbreak because one of his closest friends turned their back on Him (Matthew 26:31-35).  He was in anguish over what was to come as he had to face the cross (Matthew 26:36-39). He was beaten, flogged, a crown of thorns was placed on his head (Matthew 27: 27-31), and don’t think for one moment he didn’t feel the physical pain of it all. Yet, he still willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice. Was he afraid? I’m sure he was! 

From time to time you are going to have to say NO to yourself and your mind and YES to Jesus. There are going to be times when you have to actively deny yourself and what you are feeling in order to follow Jesus. Same goes with the feeling of fear—do not be afraid of that which can kill your body, but cannot kill your soul. This is a direct quote from Andy Stanley, “Uncertainty is unavoidable, but fear is optional.” Uncertainty is unavoidable, but fear is optional. There are times when fear is going to overwhelm us so much that it cripples us, but remember that if you are a Follower of Christ, you do not submit to fear, you submit to God. In these moments when fear is taking over and the walls are starting to close in on you, you have a choice. You can choose to submit yourself to the fear and allow it to take over and control you, OR you can choose to respond to Jesus’ authority. 

Hebrews 11:1-2 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

Faith is the confidence in what we hope for, and assurance of what we do not see….that is why all of the people we read about in the Bible, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul all gave their lives to the mission of spreading the gospel! He believed what God said, because they had confidence in what they hope for, and they had assurance of what they didn’t see. Were there times they were filled with fear? Oh! I guarantee it! But they didn’t love their lives so much that they shrunk from death (Rev. 12:11). They faced it head on, they stood up to it, they pressed on, and they made a choice to respond to God and his authority rather than submit to their fears. They were looking forward and they were faithful…often times we look back at things and that is what makes us fearful. 

You guys, us in this generation, should be the least fearful!! We should be the MOST confident and humble, we should be the ones that are standing shouting loudly, not submitting to the fear of “what if.” 

Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders (fear), and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” 

Consider him…who endured such opposition…because Jesus died and rose again…because he lives….we can be bold, brave, fearless, compassionate, selfless….when you no longer dread fear you become---FEARLESS! 

Jesus is our example of that and he made a choice to crush fear. He made a choice to stand firm in what he knew. Same with Paul, Peter, Timothy….in the New Testament they fixed their eyes on Jesus and they advanced the gospel with confidence. 

Guys this is our time here, right now, this is our chance to take a stand and be brave like our examples we read about. We are the stewards of our faith and it continues on with our generation, because we recognize, fear is an option! We are to consider our examples and not grow weary and loose heart, to not allow the temptation to submit to fear control us. We have to make the choice. 

Uncertainty is unavoidable, but fear is optional!

I want to wrap up with a quote by Beth Moore, "That means if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, darkness can not force you to stay. It can only harass you into believing that you belong there. You don't!"

A Remix

It is June. Not quite sure how I got here, but hey I am here in the 7^th day already. Quite a few things have happened since I last posted…a quick update….the trip to Nepal was…eye opening. :) And had some great moments too…really glad I had the chance to go. Also, my Mother finally got moved to Virginia! She has bought a house already and we move her in Wednesday! So thankful to have her here.

 

The latest and hardest thing for me right now is, my dear friend has moved. We have been doing ministry together for the past 8 years, and she finally moved away yesterday, to be near family. It has been a hard thing for me to just release her and be ok with all the change that has happened and I found myself really struggling with sadness yesterday.

That is why this next part I am going to tell you is SO cool, because my God is ridiculously amazing and is in ALL the details and He shows me all the time that He is!! I just have to share this with you!

 

So…my friend and I started the Beth Moore study; Children of the Day. It’s the study on 1 & 2 Thessalonians. We have talked about doing it for quite some time, but we just now have gotten around to starting it.

So we started watching the 1^st video today…and Beth has to set up the whole context on how we find Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Thessalonians, so she goes back to the very beginning on how they all met in Acts.

 

So she is referencing, how Paul and Barnabas were together and were inseparable and did ministry together and were just very very close…Acts 15:36-16:5….in acts 15:39-41 she is elaborating on how they had a huge disagreement so much so that it separated the two of them. (Sad huh?) And it says that barnabas sailed off with John Mark (who is his cousin), and Paul went off with Silas…(and then later she talks about in Acts 16 how Timothy came into the picture)…..but this is where I want to stop; with the Paul and Barnabas situation….Beth started talking about how sometimes in ministry we have disagreements and they split us up, split church up, split marriages up….but sometimes it is not this big blow up, maybe it is a friend moving away…..!!! She literally said that!! Maybe it’s a friend moving away!!! Here come the water works! I instantly start crying. She said, sometimes we are so upset by an unwelcomed situation (for me, my friend moving), that we NEVER EMBRACE THE NEW ONE. *cry fest* 

 

Then she keeps on saying that because of the situation with Paul & Barnabas and their parting, it allowed the Holy Spirit to birth something brand new…She was saying you don’t know, but maybe the next person you meet because of this parting could become one of the dearest people in our lives. She said that this open wound Paul had wasn’t filled back up with one person, it was filled by two men (Silas & Timothy)…and that sometimes God mixes things up for us & makes things happen on PURPOSE because the renewal we need to keep going deeper is in the “remix.” (She was calling this change up, or this unwelcomed situation a “remix” haha)

 

She said we are not meant to stay the same, and God allows these situations for a reason…..and if we stay where we are he can’t get us to the place he needs us to go…She also said, if you are in this season of change, you are on the next path God has for you in this remix……I could not stop the tears. She even said, you can be angry in the unwelcomed situation or you can embrace it; open up your heart to it and live boldly in it….and yesterday I was just getting mad. I didn’t want my friend to move, I don’t want change. I don’t want to have to open up to different people….I want it to stay the same. Crying crying crying….one big ball of emotions am I.  

 

Then she went on to say the kicker, “God will put us to flight, if we let Him.”

And I knew this was specifically for me---sure this stinks….bad. I don’t want this; I want to be with my ministry partner. I want to remain the same and not have to get out there and open up more to other people. To have to be vulnerable and have to relearn someone’s personality & build trust again…..That does NOT sound fun, but to NOT embrace this new season I am in would be robbing God of moving in my life. It is also going to rob me of some of the richest women to women relationships, if I don’t embrace it. 

 

I think I was supposed to hear this message so that I would let the past go…and to look forward. Not forgetting the past, but to EMBRACE the new season…..as much as I want to dig my heels in and say no!! I need my friend! It was so clearly God speaking to me this morning…just even the timing of starting the study, and the words she was saying….the situation I find myself in, is sad….but it’s not forever and I know I will always remain in contact with my friend, but I just felt like it was God saying all this so specifically to me. It was as if He was saying, “Ok Janna, its time….let me put you to flight”…..and I couldn’t stop crying. And still am crying.

 

So where ever you find yourself, whatever situation you are in….this is your time, our time to take flight…to take what we have learned over the years & start giving back. To be BRAVE and to be BOLD in where God has you and harness it for his Kingdom. He will put us to flight…if we let Him. 

xoxo

 

Let the Adventure Begin!

Today is the day! 

It has been 12 years since my church has been going over to Nepal to visit and support the Tibetan Trust Home. The Tibetan Trust Home is one of our strongest global mission partnerships, and is a residential or boarding school for underprivileged Tibetan kids in the Pokhara area, supported by donations. My husband has gone over a lot in these past 12 years, and over that time he has asked me to come quite a few times….my answer always resulting in “no, not this time”. My no was for whatever reason…the girls were small or didn’t work out with my vacation time and what we had planned that year, on and on I just have never went. There is the other part too that my heart beats deeply for Africa. I love that country; I love the culture, and the people. So if I were to jump at an opportunity to go on a trip it would be to Africa, not Nepal.  

So here we are today and in just a few short hours we will begin the 2 to 3 day trek to Nepal! There were several motivators for me to say yes to go this time when he asked. One being our girls aren’t infants anymore and are at an age where they don’t need so much one on one care. Another reason was I had enough vacation time as this year I moved up to 3 weeks’ vacation! Another reason was on this trip we get to celebrate 20 years of the Trust Home being in open. And then the last was, if Jeremy was going to get me to Nepal he knew another key motivator would be to go with friends! There are several of our closest friends going on this specific trip, so that is when all of that combined I said yes. 

There are so many emotions that have come these past few weeks leading up to this trip, and the culmination of it all was last night my oldest daughter saying please don’t go as she is crying in my lap. Ok just go ahead and RIP my HEART straight OUT!! Ugh. Needless to say, it was a weep fest.

Despite all the tears, I am excited. I was driving in to work today, praying, and I’m just excited to see God in a whole new context. On the other side of the world, to watch Him be moving & not confined by my little world I try to keep him boxed into. I’m also excited to see the Trust Home in person, to get to meet Argon, and the kids we support. To be able to see the majesty that is the Himalayas!  Cannot wait for that part!

So my prayer for this trip is that I am present. That I’m not so focused on missing home and the girls that I miss what God has in store for me there. After 12 years of not going, there is a reason I am going on this trip specifically so I don’t want to miss a thing!

Here we goooooooooo!

 

Brainstorm with me

Go with me here today….this isn’t going to be like any of my other posts. Think of it as a lets brain storm together post. Recently I was asked a question on what types of things would you want to see at a leadership retreat for women. I got thinking for a while and the first thing is…I would not want it to be a waste of my time (or any of the womens time). Time is valuable and we are stretched in so many directions the last thing I would want for me or for any other woman is for it to be a waste of their time. I would want it to have a vision and a purpose and want us to take away some practical things. You see, I’ve never been a normal ‘woman’s’ leader…I just have never really bought into the retreats that are weep fests and just bare your soul as you cry over chocolate. That’s just not me. I want to dig in deep to the word. I want to talk about things that are going to propel me forward as a leader.  So as I was thinking I wanted to define the word:

Definition of retreat

1. an act of going back or away especially from something dangerous, difficult, or disagreeable <The enemy is in retreat.>

2. a military signal for turning away from the enemy <He sounded the retreat.>

3. a place of privacy or safety <a mountain retreat>

4. a period of time in which a person goes away to pray, think quietly, or study

 

Now obviously we are talking about numbers 3 & 4. 

And another way to put it is: A quiet or secluded place in which one can rest and relax. A period of seclusion for the purposes of prayer and meditation.

 

So as I am thinking of leadership and that specific role I think about….as a leader you need to take time and regroup, recoup, to rest and relax. The leaders I think about run so hard that they don’t take much time to stop and rest. They are just on the go and they start to run on empty because they are pouring out so much to others. Taking time to retreat and rest, to relax, pray and meditate. Get fueled back up…that is the main point of what I would want a retreat to be. 

The other word that comes to mind is: Equip

Definition of equip

1. to provide (someone) with necessary materials or supplies

2. to provide (something) with a particular feature or ability

3. to prepare (someone) for a particular activity or problem

 

I just love the definition of this word because what better description of the word do you need…its to provide someone with necessary material or supplies. To provide a particular feature or ability, and then to prepare for a particular activity or problem. And isn’t that the whole point of what a “retreat” for leaders should be? We want them to rest and retreat, but also we want to prepare them for being a leader! I just loved these two words and they totally resonated with me. 

Going back to the original question: What types of things would you want to see at a leadership retreat for women? And keeping in mind the definition of retreat and equip I would like to see some main speakers talk about…here are just some options that I think would be vital to equipping leaders: 

• Taking a look at one of the letters Paul wrote specifically to leaders and breaking it down. Giving practical and useful tools on how to continue on in the faith. 

• Run and not grow weary. Talk about the struggles we face as women leaders and how to run and not grow weary. With that too, touch on running your own race. Not running the person on your right or lefts race, but staying in the lane that God has for you and you alone. How to navigate that challenge of comparison as a woman leader. 

• How to be armed for the battle. Teach on how to lead people well especially when leadership and the position you are in becomes mundane. How do you keep pressing in and marching forward when you feel your wheels are stuck in the mud. 

I would want to maybe have some breakout sessions that talked about more practical things like how to lead a small group or how to handle different situations within the group; the talker the non-talker etc. Another break out could be how to handle crisis situations or how to help someone in crisis, or how to engage in conversations with people when you are shy yourself. 

      

Those are things I would like to see at a retreat; things that would add value to my time as I sat and refueled. What about you? What kinds of things or topics would you like to see discussed at a retreat for women leaders?

Thanks for taking this brainstorming session with me…sometimes it’s fun just to sit and dream up things even if they won’t come to be! Happy Friday everyone.