Thanks for the lemonade

Summer begins and brings with it the gleeful sounds of youth who have merrily left classrooms behind for a few months to enter into an equally educational endeavor -- the “summer job.” In order to pocket extra dollars, who didn’t mow lawns, serve French fries or sell lemonade (I recently observed the price of a glass has risen dramatically from five cents) on the sidewalk? During our seasonal family excursions to South Carolina, my grandmother would cheerfully remind us to “make lemonade” when things went sour, but the wisdom buried in that expression took years to bear real fruit. Life does seem to bestow more than a handful of hurdles (Psalm 34:19), typically arriving in bushels large and small – a car breaks down, an arm gets broken, an investor goes broke. Whether or not we choose to acknowledge the arrival of such calamity (Job 5:6-8), it benefits our overall health and well-being to accept each and every lemon graciously and, in turn, take stock of what we do have in our fruit basket – the love of family, the fellowship of friends and the precious commodity of mercy and grace found in the most Gracious Grower, the One who planted said seeds in the first place. The next time life drops a lemon on you, grab a pitcher and some sugar, and then take a quick moment to thank God for the refreshment (Nahum 1:7). In so doing, you will not only please the Provider, you’ll also beat the heat.