Lemons Into Lemonade

As I mentioned Wednesday, we’ve had a rough one lately! When the little one was sick in his room, the girls kept asking to make lemonade. Our lemon tree knows no season and produces more lemons than we can use year round! So even though it’s January, we had more than enough resources to make the sunny beverage and we needed something sunny to brighten up the dark cloud hanging over our house. I know it’s cliché, but it kept running through my head,

“when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

7 days of the stomach flu for my family was more lemons than I could handle! But my little girls brought great wisdom with their plea to make lemonade – we can make something lovely out of this situation.

Today in my Bible study, a woman shared about her life when one of her young daughters passed away. She mentioned the parable of the talents from Matthew 25:14-30. A man going on a journey called his servants together and distributed his wealth amongst them. Each one took the money and did different things with it. Two men invested it and multiplied it. The other buried it because he was afraid.

      She said, no matter what God gives you, be it wealth or hardship, what’s most important is what you do with it. This struck me. I’ve always heard this passage preached about in regards to the gifts and talents God gives us – are we using them for his glory? But I’ve never heard someone talk about being responsible and wise with life’s hardships and tough circumstances. With the death of her daughter, she decided to glorify God with it and every year her family goes to work at a camp for families with a terminally ill child because they can identify with the pain and hardship and they go to offer hope.

What is in your life today? Lemons or blessings? Either one, what are you doing with it?

*See you Monday for another Intentional Marriage post