making the most of...

I remember years ago working with a dear lady we called Miss Ruby. She is a true southern lady with the deep accent and all. When she talked words just slid out of her mouth with little or no effort. She is the kind of person who makes everyone she meets feel great. I remember when things would go wrong and we had something that didn’t quite work out Miss Ruby would come and say, “You know what you do when you get a lemon? You make lemonade!” Through the years it may seem like you have so many lemons, that you could make lemonade every day for the rest of your life. Life does throw us lemons. You miss that promotion. Your plans for a vacation fall apart. Your kids do something that is totally off the map. Life is full of lemons and we can deal with them by letting them sour us, or we can use them to take us to a new level of commitment. A commitment that allows God’s plan to add a little sugar and a little vision can make some sweet tasting lemonade.

This all brings to mind the word LONG-SUFFERING. Long-suffering has a meaning that brings making lemonade come totally into focus. The definition of long-suffering is long and patient endurance of injury, trouble, or provocation. Or dealing with lemons!! So, I guess if you were to name the fruit for long-suffering it would be a LEMON. The attitude we must have is to allow the fruits of the Spirit to come alive in our life and one fruit that can really make life victorious is the fruit of Long-suffering. When Miss Ruby would encourage us all to make lemonade out of those lemons she showed me a great fruit of the Spirit in her life: long-suffering.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith...

--Galatians 5:22

Point for worshippers: When things don’t go your way, make lemonade. When life throws you a curve ball, make lemonade. Let the fruit of long-suffering be seen in your life by allowing God’s strength and power to make sweet tasting lemonade out of the lemons in your life. If you didn’t have Christ and there was no power, you would just have lemons and the fruit would be sour. But with Christ the fruit is made not only sweet, but becomes a major life-changing agent that makes us more like Him. Each of us must make the most of every situation by allowing Christ to move us through the obstacles as he makes lemonade out of each of us.

Get sweet and don’t get beat!
The Pilgrimage continues....


David Warren