It has been over two years since I posted anything to my blog, but I feel led to begin again with a new title and a broader vision.

My blog began as a part of my writing my first book Learning to Love: A Collection of Poetry and 40 Days of Devotions. Once that project was completed and published, I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders. I was relieved to accomplish the project that I was compelled to finish for so long. But then I wondered, What’s next?

I knew I had future projects that I wanted to complete, but how should I tie them all together in a blog? How could I feature all the things that I want to do under one theme?

God has a way of using adversity to give His people clarity and vision and calling. My book began as a vision years before, but the momentum to make it materialize faster was January 6, 2021. I had to be a voice of Christian love in a divided America of hate and stereotypes. My next project, which will be called Seasons of Change: The Unchanging God in an Ever-Changing World, was put on my heart by the Lord after I finished my book, but now, after October 7, 2023, I know I have to write it. On that day, darkness made itself known in a way that it had not toward Jews before in my generation. 1,200 people were tortured and brutally murdered: men, women, children, old, young. Hundreds were kidnapped into Gaza and many never got to return home alive and many are still suffering there now.

Right after it happened, I posted on social media that I stand with Israel, and I received a death threat from a Hamas social media profile. That death threat, in comparison to the suffering that just happened, is so miniscule, but it was just enough direct exposure to that hatred to scare me. I changed my profile on that platform from my name (because of the death threat) to Valley Princess. That will also be the new name for my blog.

Here’s why I’m choosing Valley Princess. My first name literally means “princess.” I remember my elementary Sunday school teacher made beautiful framed artwork with Scripture in calligraphy. She painted me a rose, and the verse she chose for me was 1 Peter 2:9:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

As children of the living God, the King of the Universe, we are princes and princesses. Matthew 5:5 says the meek will inherit the earth. 1 Corinthians 6:3 says we will judge angels. Incredibly, Ephesians 2:6 says we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So if you are a child of God, you are a prince or princess of the King of Kings, and I am a princess of the King of Kings.

When I married, my last name literally became “of the valley.” So I became Princess of the Valley. Six months later, we moved from the Sunshine State to the Tennessee Valley at the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Life is a journey. That journey is full of mountaintop experiences, but it is also full of valleys. Whether you are on the mountaintop, valley, or somewhere in between, God is with you. He is the God of the mountains and valleys. He is the God of the whole earth, the universe.

In 1 Kings chapter 20, the author records the story of how God used King Ahab of Israel to defeat the enemy of Israel: the Syrians. The Syrian army came up against Israel in the hill country and they were defeated by the power of God.

² Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Come, strengthen yourself, and consider well what you have to do, for in the spring the king of Syria will come up against you.”

²³ And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. ²⁴ …Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” And he listened to their voice and did so.

²⁶ In the spring, Ben-hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷ And the people of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went against them. The people of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country. ²⁸ And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The Lord is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’”

God defeated the Syrians for Israel that day because he is a God of the hills and the valleys. He is God of the whole earth. Psalm 24:1 says,

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.

Why did God do this for Ahab? 1 Kings 16:33 tells us that “Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” He married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon. She introduced Ball worship to Israel in an unprecedented volume and persecuted and even martyred anyone who still worshiped the Lord. But even during those dark days, God loved and cared for his people, and He delivered them from the hands of Jezebel and from the hands of the Syrians in both the hills and valleys. They were the minority and the enemy was the majority. He did it so that “you shall know that I am the Lord (1 Kings 20:28).”

The days of Ahab and Jezebel were also the days of the great prophet Elijah. God performed many miracles through his prophet Elijah and used him as an archetype for John the Baptist and even for those who will preach before His second return. So the valleys of darkness are also places of opportunity for God to show His power in amazing ways. Psalm 23:4 says,

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.

The Cherokee called the Tennessee Valley the Valley of Sickness or the Valley of Death. Pollen collects here like water in a bowl. It stays just warm enough in the winter and just cool enough in the summer for bacteria to survive and harbor. This valley can also be a very tumultuous place in regard to the weather and nature. The week I moved here from being a life-long Floridian, we were snowed in for the biggest snow in at least a decade for this area. We are just south enough to be without snow equipment and everything had to shut down for a while. That spring, we had the deadly and destructive April 2011 tornado system. Then the 13-year cicadas emerged. You couldn’t walk through a parking lot or on a sidewalk without stepping on them. That might have been normal elsewhere too, but that was not Sunshine State normal. And we just had them here in the valley again in convergence with 17-year cicadas, as well as the regular annual cicadas. They were deafening. But living here for almost 15 years now, I can also say that a valley is a very beautiful place. My husband and I even had the chance to return to the Sunshine State, and we actually chose to stay. Everywhere you look, God’s beauty here declares His glory. Last week, I watched a doe and her two spotted fawns stop at a pond. The fawns frolicked around their mother in circles, much like my children around me. Ducks swim and herons strut in the water. The creek bubbles over the rocks and fish swim in its current. A refreshingly cool breeze blows off the water. The tupelo forests are full of colorful butterflies and dragonflies and damselflies. The trees will be turning brilliant colors of yellow, orange, and red in just a couple of months. In the fall, the fields are full of wild daisies, milkweed, aster, goldenrod, and thistle. The barred owls call to one another as the sun sets, and bats fly overhead catching their evening meal.

I want this blog to encourage you in your valleys, especially the dark ones. God is still God. This blog is also to call out the darkness and call it what it is. God’s Word always has something to say about it. This blog still uses poetry and music to encourage, and some posts will be explicating poetry and music and art through a Biblical lens.

I do want to get to my next big project, but first, I need to start with a smaller series: interpreting the artistic creation of the 2024 Paris Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. You may have heard a lot from Christians and believers about it, but they only highlighted a couple of major elements. This new blog series will reveal in full detail the darkness of this show and what it entails. Remember, God is still on the throne, and Jesus Christ is the Name above every name! I invite you to return next week to see the first post in my newest series: “Spiritually Understanding the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies.” Until then, God bless.