Have you ever heard the phrase, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?" Of course you have. It is one of those sayings that people say just to say and hey, it is pretty cute. I like lemons. I like lemonade. Plus it is catchy, but all too often the realness of this phrase passes me by.

Lemons are naturally just sour. One of my favorite things to do is to watch people's faces when they squeeze lemon juice in their mouth. At family dinners when I am dirt bored, me and my siblings will have a lemon-face competition ( lame I know, but you know you do it).You can't help but have that lemon face after that first squeeze because it just gets you no matter how hard you try to hold it in, usually your face tells the story. I love that because I feel like it is so representative of our lives. We try to avoid these sour situations, but we are human and well, it is going to happen. Then once they come we try so so so hard to try to cover it up the way these trials are affecting our lives. Just like our lemon faces.

Now, lemonade is a different story. It is the perfect combination of sour and sweet. But you start with the sour. Add the lemons, dilute with water, and a bit of sugar. That is something that I have come to realize is that life really really is going to give you lemons. It isn't a guess or forecasted event. There will be trials. There will be speed bumps. There may even be a huge canyon in the middle of your life and heart. And the truth is that it is okay to have lemons. It has to be because they are inevitable. The choice is what we do with them. Do we bite down real hard on them? Do we just sit them on the table to rot? Or do we make something out of them?

The lemons have to be diluted somehow, and the greatest news of all is that we have a Savior that is beautiful and gracious to us. He takes our eyes off our sticky situations and onto him, the creator of the universe. That is some major dilution when we step back and look at our problems in comparison to our God. He is the living water that take over our hearts that are sunken in the mess. Then he orchestrates faith families, friends, and gracious community to add some sweetness to our lives. To add encouragement and laughter and shoulders to cry on. It is all done so perfectly.

I love this. Turning the sour to sweet. Turning the bad to good. Making something ugly, beautiful. There are many places in my life where I feel the sourness could take over my life, and be evident in the way I talk, think, and act, but what is the point in that? Due to the bitter, sour taste of my parent's divorce, I have been able to draw near to young women who are searching desperately for the attention of someone, anyone, no matter the cost.. just like I did. I have been able to say "me too" many times. Is it sour and still sour? yes. But by my choice and the dilution of Jesus' love on my situation, is the fruit I bear becoming sweeter? yes. Or the sourness of that heartbreak you felt when the guy you thought would be forever, just didn't work out? I am now able to sit down and make a future of production and fruit with these sour events because Jesus added the water and the my sweet, God-given community has added the sugar to my sour mess. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.