Valley to Mountain top...

My loving husband asked me the other evening if I would like to go out to "The Branch" for a nice evening stroll on a beautiful fall evening....and I agreed. So, we, Kev, Hannah and I, loaded up in the truck and drove out to start our adventure.....we parked at the gate, got out and started walking. It didn't take me long to realize that I had forgot to change shoes. I had a pair of brown leather shoes that had a small heel on them. It was very difficult to walk on the gravel road in these shoes, but I trotted on. My husband decided to go off the gravel road and hit a trail through the forest....ahh that was much easier walking than on that old gravel road, my feet didn't seem to hurt as bad....But in a few steps things would change. Kev decided to go off the trail and do some walking just through the woods. Well, being the loving and kind wife that I am, I didn't question him on his decision. We were surrounded by the most beautiful landscape, so I was trying to enjoy the view. It was so peaceful, all you could hear was the rustling of the dried leaves under our feet as we walked and the occassional bird singing....this was relaxing. But then things started changing.....the walk started becoming rough, there was alot of trees that had fallen at some point, there they laid dead and rotting under our feet, some had been there for quite some time for they had been covered by the leaves and moss. There were small trees and large trees....laying all around DEAD, among the living....as I kept walking I kept looking down....not really paying attention to where I was going, just looking around me walking and climbing over these dead trees. Then I started noticing that I was in a valley....the hills were all around us and we were in a deep valley. I didn't really notice walking into it but there I was, slap dab in it. Kevin had stopped to wait on me because remember the shoes...I wasn't walking as fast as he was. Hannah was there by my side, not complaining just enjoying the walk. I asked Kev, so like how do we get out of here? Its going to be getting dark soon...he said see that hill? uh yeah...thats the way out. WHAT???? I can't walk up that hill, have you not seen the shoes that I have on? He said, Honey, thats the way home. Oh my goodness, So I stood there as he and Hannah trodded making their way up the hill....I was in a deep valley, looking up this big hill that I had to climb...and I needed to get out by dark. The walk down to the valley wasn't so bad, it was hardly noticeable....because i was looking around, looking at those trees that had fallen, that I never looked up to see that I was going deeper and deeper into the woods. But I must get out. I wasn't prepared to walk up such a steep hill. I didn't have the right shoes on for such a climb, I was physically out of shape to make such a climb, and on top of that I was so tired from working all day that on top of being physically out of shape I was just too tired to walk up that hill. But I started walking.....the briars were scartching me as i walked up the hill, sometimes there were trees I could grab hold of to help me pull myself up, but I kept tripping on foliage and the trees that layed on the ground. My hair was gettting caught on the limbs and even tho I had it pulled up it was pulling my hair out. I was so frustrated, why had I walked here unprepared? My breathing started to get labored, my legs were hurting, and those stupid shoes.....my feet are still sore from those devils. I was having to be very careful walkin up the hill because I would slide right back down, walking up any hill with a heel is NOT A GOOD IDEA..... but guess what? I did make it up the hill.....EVENTUALLY. I was scratched up, sweaty, out of breath, sore but I made it. This made me start thinking about the valley that I had just came out of.....its a lot like the spiritual valleys that we face. SOmetimes we walk right into them not prepared for them, sometimes we look around and see that there are people around us, no matter how "big" or "small" a person is they can die in the valley. It is rough in the valley. YOu have to be prepared physically, mentally and spiritually. If your not, you may not make it out. I have walked a lot of valleys in my little life span.....some I didn't do so well at and stayed there alot longer than I had ever intended on staying, whether it was because I couldn't physically walk out with out the help of someone else to carry me, some because as I was walking out , I tripped on the dead things around me.....other reasons was because sometimes its easy to look around and see all the ones who have died in the valley, the strong ones that appeared to be strong on the outside, but in the center they were weak, just like those trees, those large trees that was hollow on the inside, had fallen, maybe high winds toppled them over but just the same they are now laying on the ground, in the valley where life drifted from them. I don't want to die in a valley, I actually don't like the valley that much, the view from the top of the moutain looking over in to the valley is so much more appealing to me....for on top of the mountain you can look for miles and the beauty is endless...in the valley, your surrounded by the hills and limited to what you can see....... So from that "evening walk" with my husband and daughter and who by the way didn't struggle as much as me walking up the hill, because they were prepared for whatever they came too......I learned alot of lessons. I need to be prepared for the valley, I need to have the right clothing on for the valley, I need to have the right shoes, I need to be in shape, I need to be in tune with GOD......There are more times than not that when in my spiritual valleys that I wasn't where I needed to be with GOD, I wasn't praying like I should, I wasn't reading LIke I should have been, I was just drifting.....living life. Sometimes when things are going pretty good, we don't really worry about what valley lies ahead of us.....we just go full force most times not even realizing that we are in that valley until we look up....I want to b prepared for the next valley that I walk in....I am not saying I'm on the mountain top.....spiritually....but I am making my way out of THIS valley that I have found myself in. and as long as I am climbing out of it....and am able to look back and see that I am rising above the valley....I will make it. When I reach the top of the mountain, I may be bruised and battered and tired and worn down, I may have to crawl some of the way.....out......I may have to step over some of those that have fallen on their way out of the valley, some that just sat down and decided they were going to die that the hill was just too hard to climb....but I am determined to make it. I will keep climbing...

Just a little (long) reflection I have had the last couple of days. My mountain top goal is HEAVEN.....last night at church they sang.....If that doesn't make you want to go, speaking of HEAVEN....I felt HEAVEN so near to me. NO more sickness, no more death, no more trials no more valleys........I want to go. Do you?

tonya