For many years my mom worked for The Daily Tribune, a newspaper distributed in our hometown of Baldwin Park, CA. We had a 1958 Chevy Apache pickup that she used for her job.
One day a friend of mine, Tommy Russell, put a banana under the back wheel, then dared Mom to “peel” out! She was game, put the truck in first gear, dumped the clutch — and squish! As the tire squeezed and pressed the banana, what was inside came out!
And so it is with the “squeeze and pressures” of life: they expose what is underneath the surface.
God builds our faith in the valleys of life. We prefer the vistas, the mountaintops, but we don’t build faith there. In fact, how do you get to the top of a mountain in the first place? You start in the valley below!
We build faith in the valleys of life, the hard times, through the mistakes we’ve made. Rick Warren says, “When everything is going great we usually aren’t growing great!”
So, let’s remember: Valleys are temporary — and purposeful!