Good morning! How was your weekend? I am feeling so refreshed after a little weekend getaway. I mentioned Friday that this weekend I went up to Lake Geneva, WI for a women’s retreat with my church. I had such a wonderful time connecting with other women and hearing from the Word through our wonderful speakers.
My friend Callie so kindly offered to drive us to the retreat. I met her after work on Friday and we showed up wearing near identical outfits. It was pretty funny and several people pointed it out to us that night.
The theme of the retreat this year was “Made New” and our speaker took us through the book of Colossians where Paul writes to the church of Colossae reminding them of their identity in Christ and encouraging them to live Godly lives. All weekend we wrestled with the question of “Who am I” and where our identity lies. We learned that all of our identities not found in Christ are rooted in pride and unbelief. When we truly believe that our identity is Christ and that we were made in His image, we can give all of our idols over to God and be made new in Him. That is where our abounding joy comes from.
We did a fun project to help remind us of who we are as daughters of Christ. On the first night, we were each given a blank canvas to write down the things we currently find our identity in (ex. approval from others, fear and anxiety, being successful at work, etc.). On the second night we did a little modge podge where we cut out words/pictures from magazines representing our new selves in Christ and covered over all of our previous identities we had written down. It was really neat to walk around the room and see everyone’s creations and will be a great reminder to stay rooted in Christ.
We had a great time of worship each session and took Communion together on the last day. We were given some free time during the day on Saturday where I spent some time outside reflecting on God’s beauty and reading. I also got to enjoy dinner out in downtown Lake Geneva with some old friends as well as some new friends I made this weekend. Overall it was just a wonderful weekend of healing and being renewed. My prayer is that everything I learned stays with me and becomes part of my daily life.
Here are some pictures from this weekend:
Paige @ Reasons to Come Home says
What a beautiful weekend! Since returning from Rwanda, Cory and I have really been praying about what our identities are. It’s hard to recognize that we aren’t putting our full identities in Christ but what a wonderful way to cover up your old ones! Sounds like an amazing weekend!
Paige says
Finding our identities and keeping them rooted in Christ is so hard! It was such a great weekend to be reminded of who we are.
xo Paige