Just one week ago, we were at a beach house in South Carolina, where it’s definitely a lot warmer than Ohio right now! My husband, Michael, and I went to Pawley’s Island for one week with a group from our church (H2O) in Columbus, Ohio, and wow, what an absolutely amazing week it was! Going into the week, I knew I really desired to grow in my quiet time with God. This is an aspect of my faith that has always been hard for me (I’m an always-on-the-go, hard to sit still kind of person), but I knew that it was a huge and vital way for me to connect with God. And wow, did God help me grow in this area so much in just one week!!

Every day during the trip we had quiet times, which was time set aside to spend reading the Bible, think through questions, pray, go on a walk, and do anything else to connect with God (for a couple of the days, we even had longer 4 hour periods). We had a time for worship music at night (thanks to a couple of guys on the trip), and spent a lot of down time connecting with everyone in the group. We went through the book of 1 Peter in the Bible, which focused a lot on living for God in different areas of your life, including in the different roles you have as well when you go through suffering of any kind.

There wasn’t really one BIG thing that stood out to me during the trip, but a lot of little things – most of all, just spending that intentional time with God and loving how refreshing that is was my biggest takeaway. It’s something that is so challenging for me, but I was able to find different ways to connect with God that made even the 4 hour periods fly by so quickly! One passage I especially loved was 1 Peter 4:10-11, which says,

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”

That doesn’t hit it home much harder than anything else about what I strive to do in my business, every single day!! What a beautiful truth to be reminded of. I had never pondered this particular verse before and how it relates to my business, but wow, it totally encapsulates how I strive to serve others by using what God has given me, to glorify Him above all!!

Besides our quiet times, we did a lot of hanging out on the beach playing games, going on walks, playing (a lot of) Avalon, and a fun day trip to Charleston, South Carolina. I had been to Charleston before, but it was SO FUN to go back and do things I hadn’t done before! I had never walked around the city itself and experienced it. I also had never been with Michael, so it was fun to go together! We walked around and saw some sites, browsed the market then down to see Rainbow Row, and went to an amazing seafood place called Hyman’s. Michael isn’t a big fan of seafood, so he gladly ate a delicious burger – but I was all for the crab legs and seafood alfredo. Yum!!

On the last day of our trip, one of the guys on the trip was baptized in the ocean (so cool!), and later that day we all got dressed up and went to have a final dinner together and share what God had been doing that week. It was such a joy to meet so many new people in our new church (I only knew a few before going, and now I know 30+ more!), and to spend a week away from distractions growing in our relationships with God! So grateful for everything He did during that time and how he impacted us all individually!

This was the beach house we stayed in for the week:

In Charleston! What a charming city to walk around and visit!

What a fun group of people!!

Right after the baptism! Such a cool thing to witness on the trip:

The morning we left, we went out to the beach at sunrise to sing one last worship song together on the shore. Such a beautiful way to end the trip!