Adult Education Blog | Southern Nazarene University

What to Do in Life's Valleys

Written by SNU Professional and Graduate Studies | Jul 3, 2019 3:14:57 AM

By: Chaplain Doug Samples, SNU Professional and Graduate Studies

This is the second in a series of articles Chaplain Doug Samples has shared called 10 Decisions for a Positive Attitude. Decision #5 is, “Decide not to make life worse than it already is.” You can view all 10 decisions here.

Our conversation this week is focused on Decision #5…Decide to NOT make life worse than it already is!

What in the world does that mean? I believe that the best way to make life worse than it already is, is by making major, life-changing decisions from valley to valley instead of from mountain top to mountain top!

We see this happening all the time in the movies: Avengers, Toy Story, Jason Bourne, etc. The characters get in trouble and makes poor decisions that takes things from bad to worse!

Let’s say these wavy lines represent the mountains and valleys of our life. When things have gone bad, and life has put us in a deep, dark valley, we aren’t able to see our way forward very clearly. From the bottom of the valley, any decision we make is most likely not going to be a wise decision, which is then going to compound the problem!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_JjpxKLQFY

So, rather than making a rash decision out of anger or frustration or discouragement, we need to learn to hold steady and work hard in order to get on top of things (back on the mountain top so that we can have a clear view.

THEN (and only then) can we have the clear vision to see out into the future which will then help us make the best decisions possible!

Life is not always a ride in the Fun Car! Truth is… Life can dump a whole carload of hurt on us and leave us on the side of the rode to die! But that is NOT the time to make a huge life-changing decision that has the potential to make the situation worse than it already is!!!

The storms may be swirling around you today… But remember…

God has you!

May you be assured of His Presence!