You Are Not a Permanent Resident in the Valley
- kristina mathieu
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
There are seasons of life that feel like valleys.
You cannot see very far ahead.
The terrain is difficult.
Everything seems heavier than it used to.
And sometimes you begin wondering if this is simply your life now.
I have had those seasons.
There were times when I could not imagine how the circumstances around me could ever become something I would eventually look back on rather than something I was still living inside.
Faith did not magically remove the valley.
But it changed the way I understood where I was.
The Valley Is a Place, Not an Identity
Psalm 23 says:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley…”
I have always been struck by one word:
Through.
We walk through the valley.
We are not instructed to build a permanent residence there.
That does not mean rushing grief.
Pretending things don't hurt.
Putting a positive spin on something devastating.
Or forcing ourselves to “move on.”
Some valleys take time.
But there is a difference between honoring what happened and deciding that what happened is now the definition of our entire future.
Healing Is Not Always Dramatic
Sometimes we imagine healing as one enormous breakthrough.
In my experience, it often looks much smaller.
One day you realize something that once consumed your entire day occupied only an hour.
Then twenty minutes.
You recover from a trigger faster.
You communicate a boundary more clearly.
You stop chasing an answer you cannot control.
You laugh without feeling guilty about it.
You make plans again.
You start imagining a future.
Tiny things.
But they matter.
They are evidence that you are moving.
Faith in the Middle
Sometimes we talk about faith as though it means believing God will make everything turn out exactly the way we want.
My own journey has required something different.
Trusting God while still not knowing what would happen.
Trusting Him when relationships were complicated.
Trusting Him while grieving.
Trusting Him while making difficult decisions.
Trusting Him while rebuilding myself.
Faith became less about controlling the outcome and more about knowing I was not walking through it alone.
Keep Walking
If you are in a valley right now, you do not need to pretend you can see the mountaintop.
Maybe today you can only see the next step.
Take that one.
Ask:
What do I need today?
Who is safe for me to reach out to?
What is within my control?
What truth do I need to remember?
What is one small thing that would move me toward the life I want?
Then take another step tomorrow.
The valley may be part of your story.
It may change you.
It may teach you things you never wanted to learn.
But you do not have to make it your permanent address.
Keep walking.
More on this topis through the Podcast
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