Making Decisions

Time of writing:

Spring 2009

Place of the first retreat:

Babice, Diocese of Gliwice

Place of writing:

Diocese of Gliwice

Target group:

Open retreat for people aged 13 to 23

Retreat description:

The diakonia discerned that retreats about discerning one’s life path are needed. We decided to split the topic into two stages - “What am I looking for?” and “Making decisions”. These retreats focused on the courage to decide and the ability to trust. We tried to fight a certain kind of paralysis that grips many people, that they are afraid to decide so that it won’t be wrong. A frequently repeated sentence was “God blesses decisions”. We led participants to the sentence: chosen means valuable. The retreat also undertook a fight with the misunderstood phrase “God has a wonderful plan for You” as if every decision of ours was planned, and we can only fit into the scheme from God or make a fatal error (here a simple comparison appeared: God is more like a GPS than a driver :).

List of small-group meeting outlines

• Meeting 1. - What decisions do we make?
  • Goal
  • Introduction
  • Discussion
  • Summary
  • Survey - needed for the next meeting
• Meeting 2. - Stages of making decisions – what guides me?
  • Goal
  • Prayer
  • Introduction
  • To make a choice/to have something chosen
  • Choice – what can we give thanks to it?
  • My choices – analysis of steps
  • Summary