When Life Hands You Lemons...

We've all heard the saying, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."

Let's be frank: that's a load of crap.

When life handed me lemons today, I wanted to say, "Really, life? More lemons? Take them back. I've had enough."

Then my inner Madea said this:

Let's face facts: we don't want lemons in life. They are sour. On their own, they are not enjoyable. And sometimes, no matter what you do, there is no way that you can take those lemons and turn them into something good.

None of these are good options when receiving lemons...and I'm not sure how you start a fire with lemons.

Sometimes lemons are just lemons.

Instead of whining or complaining or trying to change those lemons into something better, we need to learn to accept that sometimes we just need to say, "Yep. These are lemons. They are my lemons. And eventually life is going to give me something other than lemons."

Not everything in life is great, but God is great. And He has great things planned for us. He tells that in his Word in Jeremiah 29:11.

Today, God taught me to accept the lemons. I said, "God, life has given me lemons again. I accept that. I cannot change the fact that they are lemons. I know that one day You're going to give me something truly great...but today is my day to get lemons. And that's OK."

Sometimes we work too hard to turn something bad into something good. But where is our faith if we feel that we must act to change those circumstances? God is faithful, and--if you're patient--God will give you the good stuff in His time. All we have to do is wait. (Granted, waiting is never fun or easy.) Making lemonade says that we don't have faith in God's provisions for our life. Sometimes God just wants us to hold the lemons until He's ready to give us something great.

So that's what I'm doing now: holding lemons. I'm not mad or bitter about it. It's just what God wants me to do right now...and who am I to complaining about that?

And if this doesn't convince you not to make lemonade with life's lemons, then maybe this last picture will: