That valley.....

When I was just a little kid, my mother would make us memorize verses. I don't mean two, three, or even five verses, I'm talking about chapters. Every Christmas, my brothers and I would stand up infront of our family and resite the whole Christmas Story. It was not necessarily the same verses every year either. I would sit on the counter as my mom would make dinner or bake buns, and I would memorize my verses. It wasn't just for Christmas, but sunday school verses as well.
We would get prizes for memorizing our sunday school verses, but this one time, it wasn't enough to memorize the designated verse, my mom made me memorized the chapter.... again. A very popular Psalm, one that I have never forgotten.

Psalm 23:
"The Lord is my shephard, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
For You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely, Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Oh that valley....... I walk through that valley, and yet I still shall not want?

I was told the other day, that I'm too positive. I had to laugh. One of my best friends, whom I have known since grade 5, and myself, used to say "Life sucks, then you die....". To a certian extent, I think this is true. Life is out of our control. You can do all the planning you want, and it will go right down the toilet the next day. Life is full of sickness, heart ache, bad weather and of course way too good weather (apparently when people ask for sunshine, they have a temperature limit), broken down cars, rush hour, loss of jobs, etc. The list goes on forever. Someone I know always seems to have something going wrong, but guess what, THAT IS LIFE!
Thank the Lord I don't live for this big round ball of disappointment. "I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from?" (Psalm 121:1) 
My "Positivity" comes from the knowledge that this "life"... isn't it. One day I will kneel before the Lord, and know I will never walk this Valley again. "And I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever."



Below is a song by Jeremy Camp, that I find encouraging.

http://youtu.be/HUzDOGzABSM