The Hills and Valleys of Life

  Adversity is a blessing in disguise. Adversity is the prerequisite for your purpose. No one will ever reach their destination without adversity. Adversity is a mindset, circumstances, problems, and struggles. The size of your adversity is the size of your destiny. To grow into something big, you’re going to have to face something big! New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. God allows challenges in our lives to stretch us into who He has destined us to be. Great people become great because they have gone through hardships that have challenged them. They allowed their struggles to make them stronger and to be used as stepping stones towards greatness. Suffering and defeat are a part of life, and no one can escape it. Instead of trying to avoid adversity, embrace it and see the blessings in your trials. When it feels like the pressure is trying to crush you, you’re close to reaching your breakthrough.

What do you do when you’re told to stop and smell the roses but there are no roses around you? Eventually, you will get tired of not having roses to smell. Your adversity will give you the drive to start planting them yourself! Life is a circular motion of victory and defeat. You won’t always be up and you won’t always be down. The highs and lows are designed to teach us, build our faith, stretch us, and prepare us. Life is full of obstacles! Adversity is simply getting past one wall only to find another wall waiting for you. I guarantee that once you get over one wall you will be more equipped for the next wall ahead. Knowing struggle creates within you a go-get-it mentality. You have to go through it to get through it! Don’t quit because what’s on the other side of adversity is your reward.

Mountains are symbolic of insurmountable obstacles, problems, and difficulties. Each one of us has our own assigned mountains to climb. What we go through is for us to grow, empower, and teach others along the way. Sometimes mountains are the very thing that saves us from going down a destructive path. While we are amid obstacles and challenges our outlook on life can be distorted. I believe that there is always a reason for mountains. Mountains are assigned to build up our faith and teach us patience and mountains can also keep us from speeding through life. We should never allow our struggles, past, and obstacles to get in the way of reaching our destination. Life is a journey and no one can travel it for you. The mountains that need to be moved are not natural land masses but they are mentalities, people, mindsets, and attitudes.   

We all have had challenges in our life. The greater the struggle the greater the victory. Anything that doesn’t challenge you won’t change you. Unfortunately, no one gets through life without some sort of struggle, setback, or defeat. As I think about my mountains, in hindsight looking back it made me the woman I am today. Mountains build character and provide us with the necessary wisdom to be who we are, not only for ourselves but for others. I strongly believe that we become so others can become. To move mountains in your life, you must speak to your mountains! You are going to have to train your mind to be stronger than your feelings. While tackling mountains the best thing you can do is to get closer to God. Oftentimes instead of seeing the blessing of your mountains we get upset with God and ask Him why. As if God is getting joy out of our pain. Trust what God blocks. Too often people give up because they cut off their faith lifeline which allows for the devil to come in and give you the spirit of defeat. While you are tackling a mountain you must stay connected with God. Believing, studying, and praying your way through is the only way to overcome your mountains. If you stop then you will never get the victory. Quitting never sped up the process.

Mountains can be hard, painful, and discouraging but you should climb the mountains in your life. To change your mindset from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, you must first believe that God will give you the strength to endure. Believing is always half of the battle. Having faith when you don’t see God or when you don’t feel His presence amid your challenges will separate you from those who spend a lifetime of struggle versus those who struggle temporarily and who can use their mountains for their purpose.

In Philippians 4:12-13 The scripture says, "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Think of the mountains in your life. Have you allowed your mountains to break you or make you? Whether your mountains are financial burdens, family issues, pain from your past, people, your mindset, your habits medical issues, etc. to know victory you must know defeat. The people who get to the top, do it by not quitting! They allowed their pain to have a positive impact no matter how hard it was. Changing your mindset changes your vision. Mountains are the perfect situation for growth. Before you were born God had a plan for your life. We were born with a purpose and mountains are assigned to us for a purpose. God knows the outcome and we must have the faith to believe that what He’s doing, is best. Moving mountains will require action, it’s time to get to work. Whatever your mountains are, be thankful for your assigned mountains. Allow your mountains to direct your path and you will be able to fully walk in your purpose. You were assigned your mountains to simply show others that they can be moved. Start climbing, start believing and when you make it to the top you will know exactly how to encourage others to the top. You will know the blueprint for making it to the top. People are counting on you to keep climbing! Show your mountains how big God is and watch your mountains move. 

Embrace your struggles, struggles build character. No one can offer support to someone who always says they are okay. So often we can become ashamed of our struggle and embarrassed to be transparent with others in fear of judgment. Truth is we all have struggled at one point in our lives and some of us have experienced more struggles than victory. Life is a beautiful struggle. The most beautiful people have known struggle, felt pain, and experienced defeat. Struggles in life bring about courage. 

You must let the pain visit

You must allow it to teach you

You must not allow it to overstay 

In Proverbs 24:10 The scripture says, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small."

Life isn’t about having all the answers and having everything figured out. Without struggle, would we need God? No! Struggle keeps us grounded. You have to love the struggle just as much as the reward. So many people want the peak but hate climbing. You want success but you don’t want the struggle. People want to grow but they don’t want to go through the growing pains. Your experience is everything. Your struggles, lessons, highs, and lows will all make up who you are! Overcoming challenges not only builds faith but an easy walk in the park has never made anyone fit and skilled to handle struggle. No matter whether your struggles were invited into your life by the choices you’ve made or if the struggles were out of your control, God uses our struggles to teach us a lesson and teach us gratitude, patience, and humbleness. Use the hardships in your life to be a blessing to others. Thank God for adversity, mountains, and struggles! Never let hardships break you, let them make you. When you get frustrated and tired, learn to rest, not quit. There’s so much in store for you. Remember to whom much is given, much is required. The life you want is on the other side of the life you have, you just have to step out on faith and go get it.