“Strength of character” is my favorite definition of the word resilience. We wrapped around this theme for our Beautifully Flawed retreat in Kauai just a few weeks ago. Strength of character is built in the hard things we endure in life. Easy is not where we learn endurance! When things come easy, we often walk away with no lessons learned, or thoughts to ponder. It is in the hard things that we learn the tried and true lessons of character and of the strength we have.

I remember when the pandemic first hit, being deprived of all my comforts and of all the things that had become so easy for me, I found myself feeling anxious. I remember feeling a sense of being lost, and to some degree, as if I had lost my purpose. I know that this was true for many.

I came to a place where I had to choose to learn and rethink the hard things I felt on all sides of me. I challenged myself to take my eyes off all the discomforts I was feeling, and be vulnerable to those whose needs superseded mine. I began feeding the vastly growing homeless population, I dove deep into helping provide a safe place for youth in the community to come and I traveled to help those who were inaccessible due to the pandemic. I chose to take all the fear I was facing, and used that as strength for others. It was in those moments I learned what strength of character truly meant. It does not mean you are not afraid. It simply means you do not allow tools of fear to shape your life, instead see the greater need as most important, and you begin to worry less about yourself to the point that the uncomfortable things surrounding you dissipate.

As we neared the retreat, this was the mentality we clung too. There were so many uncertainties, we wondered at times if we could truly pull this off. Our team and board leaned into our faith and felt we were to move forward. I must say that I am so glad we did! As we had these beautiful girls arrive car-full at a time, you could sense the joy among our team who had worked so tirelessly for this moment. Once everyone was checked in, we were all ready to go! We began the retreat with our incredible medical and fitness team working with the girls and by the time we walked into our first speaking session, it already felt like we were a family.