Thursday, January 24, 2013

When Life Hands You Lemons...


I never understood the saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I have been accused of being a little too literal at times; this may be one of those times. First, what is so bad about lemons? I use them in my water and iced tea. My daughter eats them plain. I will overlook that and move on, so “life” hands me a sour, yellow, citrus fruit, and I squeeze it, add sweetener, shake it up, pour it over ice, then sit back and enjoy.

I am only half joking. When we are faced with “sour” issues in our lives are we to “sweeten” it up and enjoy it? I can understand wanting to sweeten the bitterness of a difficult trial, but do we really want to enjoy it? For some people, when life hands them lemons, they become more bitter. They get bogged down focusing on their struggles. They grow angry, depressed and bitter; their hearts are hardened.

As a chosen people, we should enjoy God in the midst of our suffering. In fact, our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, regardless of our circumstances. I would suggest that sweetening and enjoying the trial itself is unhelpful and almost impossible. We can, however, enjoy the precious fellowship with our Savior who sustains us during these times.

Has life handed you lemons? Are you continually drinking in the bitterness, or have you been able to enjoy God and His peace as you sip your icy beverage?

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