Advice For A Successful Retreat Experience

Read this post and pick only a couple of things to implement. The idea isn’t to see how much you accomplish, but to have an enriched experience.

Have you been to a women’s retreat before? If you have, then you know that many first-time ladies are nervous. The following list of ideas can aid anyone in having a successful retreat.

Spiritual Preparation

Listen—How God speaks to you one day might be different from how He speaks to you on another day.  Sometimes God’s message will come through loud and clear; sometimes it will be a just a whisper.  The point is to listen!

• Expect God the Father to do something in your life this weekend.
• Open yourself up to God’s promptings.
• Spend time after each session in meditation, prayer, and honest talk with others.

Personal Preparation

Not everybody grows at the same speed; that’s okay—The reality is that you need to concentrate on your growth and let others be responsible for their own growth.

• Relax. Be yourself. You are already accepted. You have a role and a reason for being here. In fact, our Father meant for you to be here.
• Find the time to contemplate and to write your response(s) to each session.
• Write a letter before the retreat (to yourself) and do a self-evaluation after the retreat. 

Relational Preparation

This is a perfect opportunity to build relationships—Between family, work, church, school, and ministry, there’s never enough time to devote to your girlfriend relationships. It’s important to develop a strong network of healthy relationships. Aren’t you glad you’ll have the chance to do that at retreat.

• Spend time with a woman or women you don’t know at all or very well
• Find a prayer partner for the weekend.
• Be respectful of one another’s feelings and thoughts—keep confidences, don’t judge, and believe the best about one other.

Tasty Tidbits…

Saturday Free Time—from noon to 3:55pm (Saturday PM session starts at 4:00 pm sharp!)

• Have fun.
• Be a good sport.
• Be open to God’s leading.
• Do something you’ve never done before.

Your Turn . . . What would you add to this list?

Related Posts . . .

• 5 Benefits from Attending Retreats (FFF – 2011)
• 6 Lessons About Retreat That Will Ease Your Nerves
• Do These 3 Things to Get the Most from Retreat

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NOTE: Pam and I reduced two pages of ideas into one page and rearranged them to fit 4 categories. We then included this page in the notebook we gave the women for this year’s retreat. I hope you find at least one idea helpful. Thanks for your help, Pam.