The Desert Or The Valley

Let me just start today’s post by reminding you that God can take the broken pieces of your life and turn them around for your good.

Life has a way of taking you on some pretty wild adventures, but I’ve found that even the very low moments of life… the valley’s of life… they too have just as much value as those seasons when you feel like you’re on the mountain top.

There’s value in the valley.

there’s victory in the valley.

I recently came across a post on social media of a lady sharing a revelation that she had from God during a very difficult season in her life. She shared that she had been spending some time talking to God, asking for direction and clarity, when she heard the voice of the Lord. She explained how she had heard him ever so clearly tell her that “her choices and her perspective during this season of her life would either lead her to the valley or to the desert”, and she expressed that he told her that it would ultimately be her choice on which one she would end up in. After I finished watching this video, I spent a few moments in silence just reflecting on what I had just come across… I didn’t really know what to think at the time, but what I did know was that this video had struck a chord in my spirit.

So, one morning, my husband woke up and joined me at our kitchen island where I had been sitting, spending time with God in prayer and reading my bible. While he ate his breakfast, we began having the most beautiful conversation about God and where we felt we were in our own healing journey’s, and later in the conversation, I began to tell him about the video that I had come across and wanted to get his thoughts on it. After I explained it to him, and dove into the valley vs. desert argument, the first thing he said was

“Well… there’s no water in the desert.”

So of course, me being me, I’m like…

“Yeah… that’s true, but where are you going with this?”

So, he then goes on to say “Okay… in any valley, there’s a likelihood that you’ll come across water…”

I’m like, “okay… I’m following you…” and he goes on… “In a desert, there’s no place to rest. There’s no place for water, but in a valley… though it’s not the most ideal place that any of us would like to be, it has water… a place to rest… a place to drink… a place to refresh yourself along your journey…” and at this time I’m just sitting there listening and then I’m like wow… “streams of living water… in the valley, there’s streams of living water”

Now by this time I’m all ears because I’m like… this man is kinda preaching to me right now, but lately this man has been dropping a whole word on me during some of our little conversations at least a couple of times a week, and some days I don’t even know what to say because it’s a side of him that I had never seen, heard, or experienced before the start of his personal healing journey. All I can say is… God’s hand is definitely on this man’s life and whatever God is doing in Him… whewww!!

Long story short, my husband summed his short message up with sharing how God will always be with us — in both the desert and the valley, because God will never leave us; however, he then went on to explain that he would personally want to spend his season of hardship in the valley, because in the valley, there can still be victory — (David defeated Goliath in a valley), and that in the valley, God provides rest stops for us… places to stop for a drink of water… water to refresh us (water that will refresh our weary souls/hearts), and that soon enough, that same valley would take us/lead us up to the mountain top.”

I mean… like whatttt!? Come on SIR!! You better preach!! haha, but no seriously, he brought so much life to that conversation through his perspective of this scenario… the holy spirit used my husband in that moment to bring so much clarity and purpose to this conversation. It opened my eyes even more to the beauty and wonder of God.

You see, I’ve been navigating my own personal healing journey and have found myself swaying back and forth between trusting my healing process, giving myself grace to allow my true emotions to come to the surface, and then falling into moments of despair and doubt. I have really high moments, and really low ones as well… times where I just completely shut down my emotions, many days doubting the possibility that I could ever be whole again. For me and for most of us, our trauma stems all the way back to our childhood. Habits and ways of thinking, unhealthy ways of coping with things that actually started long before we enter into adulthood or meet our significant others.

For me, my trauma started way before I even met my husband. Now don’t get me wrong, we have both caused each other a very fair share of emotional trauma as a result of us both operating from our brokenness, but long before meeting my husband, there were things in my young life that were left unhealed and unchecked, and it followed me into my adult life, and for my husband, his traumas and poor habits and ways of coping followed him as well, and together, we both brought all of our crap into the marriage.

Dear friends, every season of life will come with its own complexities, but for me, the recent reconnection with my biological father and the recent traumas surrounding my personal relationships (friendships and romantic), caused everything to hit a head for me.

Many of us have had things that have happened in our lives that have completely shaken our entire world. Things that seemed to be completely out of our control, problems or traumas that we ourselves might have even created for ourselves, choices and decisions that have inevitably caused pain and trauma to those that we love most, and even those occasional times where someone might have intentionally said or done things to us that intentionally brought harm or pain into our lives, but regardless of where your trauma comes from, know that it can all be worked out and turned around for your good. By the hand of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we can be healed. We can be whole. This is something that I’ve had to remind myself alot of lately. So as I am encouraging you today, I am also encouraging myself — just as I have done in a majority of my previous blog post. As I heal, I share. As I grow, I share. As I learn… I share. Knowing that God has chosen to use my pain for purpose. If just one person feels seen, heard and loved by these post, I am grateful to God. If just one person is brought into relationship with God through these post, I’ve done my job.

Now before we end today’s post I have a few more things that I’d like to say…

One thing being that I don’t personally know what the future holds for any of us, but what I do know is that we can rise up from the ashes. I sit here today knowing that God will bring me through — I will overcome. I will be healed. With a whole lot of Jesus and some therapy on the side, I will break free and my dear friend, so will you!

The very things sent to destroy you, will be the very thing that God will use for your promotion. He will turn all things around for your good. Believe in this promise from the Lord.

Be encouraged.

Psalm 91:2-16

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

All my love,

Amari E.