When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Lemonade

Ever find yourself drowning in a sour pit of lemon juice? Everything in your life going wrong? Can't seem to find your way out? Well take heart my friend! Life is guaranteed to give us lemons...but with a little sugar those lemons can turn into sweet tasting lemonade.

The sugar I'm talking about is God Himself. He's the sweetener that makes life lemons into our lemonade. Apart from Him we are settling for that sour juice. In the gospel of John, Jesus tells of his sweetness and power, He says "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) In the context of lemonade, we can say Yes, In this world you'll be surrounded by many lemons...but take heart...I have come to make the lemonade!

We can see this relationship in John 10:10 as well when Jesus tells us, "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."(NLT) Translated to the lemon theory it goes something like this...The lemons purpose is to make our life sour but the sugar added will make a rich and satisfying drink.

The lemons in our lives come in many forms, but ultimately they are Satan's way of turning us away from our relationship with God. God knows exactly what we are going through and He is right there in it with us. He can take even the worst possible situation and make something good come from it. Romans 8:28 says this quite clearly,"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

When we face life's lemons with the attitude that God will work good in all circumstances, when we choose to look for God's purposes in our trials, when we choose to believe God wholeheartedly, then sugar is poured into our sour juice pit and we are then swimming and drinking that sweet refreshing lemonade only He can make out of our lives. And boy is that good!

An example that is very appropriate to this theme is about a little girl named Alexandra Scott. She was diagnosed with cancer, and made up her mind that she wanted to raise money in order to help doctors find a cure for children with cancer. With the help of her brother, she set up a lemonade stand in her front lawn. Despite her declining health she kept her stand going, thus inspiring thousands of others to take up her cause. Since her death in 2004 at the age of 8, Alex's Lemonade Stand foundation has raised millions of dollars towards finding a cure for childhood cancer.

Apart from raising money, Alex has left us with a beautiful example of how we can turn our own life's lemons into lemonade.

Can you think of any lemons in your life that God is waiting for you to make lemonade out of?