I just love this space where I can write and people come and go and they're able to read what I write whether it matters to them or not. That was a wordy sentence, I apologize. I just feel like I haven't sat down and written a good blog post in a while. I've been scheduling them in advance due to how busy I've been (I know, I sound so professional), but I really miss the spontaneity of being able to just sit down and write a decent post.
This weekend I had the rad opportunity to go to Mariners HSM's Student Leadership Retreat which was held at the O'Neill Regional Park campground. We spent the night in tents and we made yummy campfire food and we laughed and goofed around, but we spent Saturday morning discussing stories.
When I say this, I'm not talking about stories like "Hansel and Gretel" or "Little Red Ridinghood" or "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." I'm talking about life stories. I'm talking about your story. Everyone has one and everyone's is interesting and worth hearing.
Saturday morning, our leadership team gathered around the campfire to talk about what stories were and what the purpose of them was. I think that combining the best answers, we came up with:
Stories are everyone's own life experiences that make them who they are, and how God has shaped them through that. Some of the reasons we share our stories is because; sharing one's story allows others to feel more comfortable to share theirs, it is proof that God is real and is moving, and sharing one's story not only allows others to see what God's done, but it allows them to register what God is doing in their lives and what their story looks like.
It was really cool because after we talked as a group, we broke off into quiet time where we each spent about twenty minutes developing our stories and piecing together the major turning points and events in our faith. After that, we got into our ministry teams and we shared our stories with everyone in our teams. This was a significant moment because for a lot of us, it was the first time we'd shared our stories or shared about certain big events. It was awesome to hear some people speak for the first time about something other than what's going on around us. It was amazing to listen to others share and realize that we're not alone. None of us are alone. It was so cool to look around and know that all of these students were friends. They were folks who we were able to trust.
I live in a world, like the rest of these students, where we go to school everyday keeping to ourselves because if we share something deep, everyone will find out in a matter of minutes. In high school, rumors and secrets spread like wildfires. It was so refreshing to sit in a circle surrounded by people who I didn't even know completely and share things that I had never shared before. This weekend was incredible.
I'm so thankful for my Student Leadership team. From bonding over spiders in the bathroom, sleeping on rocks, and waking up in the middle of the night because it was so cold I can truly say that I feel much closer to y'all than before. I can't wait for the rest of this year because I know that it will be full of so many more adventures like these ones.
That's all for this Monday! I hope you all are loving this cold weather almost as much as I am and I hope that you tune back in here at Messy and Kind later this week for another post that will be coming soon.
Much Love,
Delaney Miller