The Importance of Retreat

This weekend I am turning off my phone and heading to the beach in Florida for an incredible retreat with friends new and old. Especially after hosting the summit last weekend, I could not be more excited for some time for concentrated rest!

It’s been so interesting how my journey and talking about joy this year has been so intertwined with my journey with rest: my word of the year. We spent the whole first four months of the year talking about rest in an organized way, but the theme hasn’t stopped showing up in my life and my work since April ended.

If we want to have joy, we have to rest. We have to accept that we are human. We have to make time to be filled.

And that’s why when the lovely ladies over at the Unraveled podcast announced their Imago Dei retreat, I signed up within hours. We have to intentionally take the opportunities that come our way to rest, because if we don’t prioritize rest no one else is going to come along to prioritize it for us either.

And though I know it’s not a beach in Florida, rest is a huge part of our mission in the Joy Pod program. And though it won’t be rest like taking a nap on your couch, it will be rest like taking a moment to step outside your everyday life to look at and evaluate it - an often forgotten and little practiced form of rest. This kind of rest, this kind of break from the every day, is one of the most powerful gifts that we can give ourselves because it allows us to really trace the thread that God is weaving through our lives and to see where we are wittingly or unwittingly keeping that thread from continuing on.

I feel so passionate about offering these groups because, as a lifestyle brand, relationship and self exploration is where our lifestyle really happens. It’s where we figure out what we want our life to look like, not just visually, but spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. 

If we are really serious about equipping joy Missionaries, then it is absolutely essential that we equip women where it matters most – in their mind and in their heart. We can do your neck, wrist, and ears too, but that’s frankly the easier part.

I want to walk with you in the hard stuff. I want to meet you in heaven and cry tears of joy together because we were part of the story of getting each other there. And while that doesn’t happen often because of earrings (although it could!), it does frequently happen because of relationship – relationships like the ones we will build in our Joy Pods.

P.S. This is your absolute last chance to sign up for a Joy Pod! Get more info here - sign ups close at Midnight CST!