Fresh Water and Green Grass

Good morning.

I was just checking emails and decided to check the blog to see what I wrote yesterday. I am getting really tired sometimes when I'm typing, so when I re-read the posts the next day, it's almost like I'm reading it for the first time.... and I WROTE the bloody thing! hahaha. (Oh... should cool it on the blood jokes! haha)

I was thinking that maybe some of you might be scratching your heads at the part in my last post where I talked about praying for Blake to be nourished with fresh springs of water and green grass as he passes through this valley.

I remember hearing a sermon a long time ago about trials. None of us want to go through them, obviously. Reference is usually made to us being "in the valley" when we go through dark times.

But the person giving the sermon made the comment that being in the valley is really a good spot to be. He said that in a real valley, animals can quench their thirst in the streams of fresh water and there's an abundance of good healthy green grass for them to feed upon.

What he was saying was that when we are going through a trial and feel that we are in a valley, the valley actually is the best spot to be. Don't you all notice that when you're going through a hard time and there's nothing you can do about it, who do you call upon? The Lord. Would you maybe be calling on him as much if everything were going along hunky-dorey? Maybe, but not as likely. At least I know that's not the case for ME. I have not called upon the Lord more at any other time before than I have the last two to three years. Why? Because I, along with Jon and kids, have been in a really tough trying time, a trial.

But I can also tell you that I probably have never felt as much peace as I have in these last few years. No, it hasn't been easy. My heart's been broken a few times. But in the valley, I have been learning to feed upon the "fresh water" and the "green grass".

So if the true nourishment is in the valley, one would wonder why we're always trying to get out of the valley to try and climb that mountain, eh? Frankly, right now, I'm too tired to climb any mountains. I think this just might be my time to get nourished in the valley.... a time for me to grow stronger in the Lord by relying on HIS strength. I mean, really..... there's no way I can control this situation at all. I can't make Blake better. It's out of my hands.

So while we go through our valleys, our trials, we'll take the time to feed upon what's supplied in the valley. That will give us the strength to some day climb the mountain.

But let me tell ya, sure as shootin', when I get to the top of that mountain, I'll be staking a flag with a huge sign that says, "THE FOUNDS WERE HERE! WITH GOD'S HELP, WE MADE IT!"

Don't be too anxious to scramble out of your own valley.... it's where you're gonna get fed.