{"id":13165,"date":"2013-04-10T07:38:42","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T12:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=13165"},"modified":"2013-08-04T19:53:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T00:53:08","slug":"in-a-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/10\/in-a-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"In A Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
I love catching shapes in clouds & the mountains are always beautiful<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m in a valley. It’s true. Have been for about a month now AND I love it! I do! I’m working in beautiful Salem Virginia. Mountains are everywhere I look. The ride to and from each week has been gorgeous with the color of the leaves changing to burnt orange and bright reds. Megan even asked me when I started working there, what it was like. My reply was, “I’m in a valley,” to which she responded ohhhhhh, niiiiice! I had to smile because I knew that I’ve been wondering about life’s valleys.<\/p>\n

Being in this majestic valley has got me thinking lately about “life’s valleys.”<\/p>\n

We all go through the valley in life, there is no escaping it. It’s a matter of when. My question to myself has been why don’t I “look up” at the wonderful surroundings when I’m in life’s valley, just as I’m doing while working here in the valley of Virginia? I know that I’m surrounded by a million little things<\/a> that make life glorious and I also know the valleys are going to happen. So what is the disconnect?<\/p>\n

Could it be that I’m so focused on the issues that I forget to look up and enjoy what is around me? Or maybe the discouragement during that time has put a huge cloud over me and I can’t see the beauty that is all about me? Could it be that discontentment wastes my energy and I have no strength to focus on making it through the valley? Why have I never thought of looking up before?<\/p>\n

We all have so many blessings in our life that should carry us from one valley to the next but when we are in those valleys – we tend to forget them, so our stay there seems much longer than necessary.<\/p>\n

The valleys of life are hard. I’ve been in many of them and do not enjoy them during that time. I’m always thankful for friends I can come to for help, but like many – I sometimes choose not to ask, for fear of being a “burden”.<\/p>\n

I faced another closed door a few weeks back. My heart ached with great pain, discouragement and no music was there. Until I poured out my heart in the following words that day, I sat in silence. No singing, no happiness and fighting back the tears from yet one more closed door.<\/p>\n

The Closed Door<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes the hurt is too much to bare<\/strong><\/em>
\nEven though you say I can, I feel I can’t share<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Load is heavy, the road is long<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe heart is weary and has lost its song<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I know there’s hope that never ends<\/strong><\/em>
\nBut for now it seems my life won’t mend<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I just want to be held, I’m tired and weak<\/strong><\/em>
\nI’ll simply rest in silence, as I can’t even speak<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

You are strong, I’m not. I can’t even try<\/strong><\/em>
\nI can’t stop the tears from falling from my eyes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This is me, this is all – there is nothing more<\/strong><\/em>
\nSuch is my life – as I stand, facing the closed door.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Will I remember this in my next valley? Yes. Will it make a difference? I honestly don’t know. Will I struggle along alone? I hope not. I hope that I will have the courage<\/a> to ask for help that day, but it takes courage for that, and I’m far from courageous.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Why do we not look up when we are in life’s valley? Why do we struggle alone – without asking for help? We have great friendships and tons of resources, yet we choose to limp along through the valley – alone.<\/p>\n

Tell me, what is the disconnect?<\/p>\n

{{HUGS}} yall<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Marie is the founder\/President of Spreading Joy Corporation, a Non Profit that is dedicated to reminding others of the simple joy of giving. To find out more about making a difference for others without breaking the bank, more encouraging articles and more about her book Spreading Joy Daily please visit her site at http:\/\/www.spreading-joy.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m in a valley. It’s true. Have been for about a month now AND I love it! I do! I’m working in beautiful Salem Virginia. Mountains are everywhere I look. The ride to and from each week has been gorgeous with the color of the leaves changing to burnt orange and bright reds. Megan even … <\/p>\n

Read more “In A Valley”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6977,23],"tags":[4271,6779,6782,716,606,3076,67,6783,3511,5,6781,718,6785,4092,6784,6787,6788,6786,3258,6780],"class_list":["post-13165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","category-blogs","category-marie","tag-amp","tag-bright-reds","tag-burnt-orange","tag-caption","tag-clouds","tag-discouragement","tag-fear","tag-huge-cloud","tag-leaves","tag-love","tag-majestic-valley","tag-many-blessings","tag-megan","tag-reply","tag-salem-virginia","tag-shapes","tag-surroundings","tag-thankful-for-friends","tag-valleys","tag-virginia-mountains"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}