If I have heard it once, I have heard it a million times...When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Uggghhhh...honestly, I'm starting to get a few gallons of the stuff lately! Besides that, it gives me heartburn and it's sour so I don't care much for it. Couldn't we make something else like chocolate ice cream? I know, there's no good saying that could possibly make chocolate ice cream out of bad situations in life, but it was a good thought. Guess I should get to my point in all my lemonade making.
I should start with Doyle's job...the one that will no longer exist after Thursday! Just when we think we can get our bills paid off and become closer to being debt free...BOOM...a great big, fat lemon named Laid-off! I can honestly say we did not see this one coming! I have a job and I am thankful for it but it doesn't make enough for us to meet our monthly expenses and still have money for food and gas. Anyway, he will be able to draw unemployment, or at least we hope it's approved. That will help us out until he finds another job. Oh, did I mention the lemon named Uninsured? Yeah, he's new here too and will arrive at the end of June.
Meet my next guest, a lemon named Cancer. This lemon decided to attack a very close family member and also a close family friend. There are many details we haven't gotten to yet but cancer big or small is serious! No one was prepared for this very unwelcome lemon and I would give anything to rid our family and the world of such a horrible, life stealing disease.
Finally, my last guest for the day, a lemon named Rejected. Rejection never feels good, even when you're expecting it! After months of debating and discussing a company we had been praying about working for in order to live half way around the world; we filled out a very extensive application. This thing took a few hours to complete! When finished, we sent it prayerfully on its way for...REJECTION! Sure enough, that's exactly what we got. In our society, you can commit a crime and for the right amount of money have your charges ex sponged from you record. A divorce, however, can NEVER be taken off your record no matter the length of marriage or reason it didn't work out. It becomes your cross to bear from that day forward. Yes, I am very aware of what the Bible says about divorce but I also know what it says about forgiveness of sin.
Matthew 19:3-6 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?" "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate."
Matthew 19:9 "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."
John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that, whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
I also know that God does not look at a resume but at the heart; not at accomplishments but at potential. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't agree with the fact that my husband has been divorced three times, but I do know that he has been forgiven. The man I am married to is not the same, he has grown into a man of God. Ten years of being married to Doyle has allowed us both to grow into a couple seeking God's heart and answering the call He has placed on our lives.
Christians do have bad days, we have them just the same as everyone else, they just affect us differently. You see, through all this lemonade making, I put my hope and trust in Jesus. I know that no matter what the outcome is of all these lemons life is giving us, my God is in control. He is there guiding us every step of the way.
I put my trust in Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord who Provides (Genesis 22)
Jehovah-Rapha: The Lord who Heals (Exodus 15:22-26)
Jehovah-Nissi: The Lord our Banner (Exodus 17:8-15)
My God is with us, He goes before us and is already standing at the end of all these trials. It's up to us how we decide to deal with them. I am anxiously awaiting for new doors to open and the blessings each one of them will hold. One day when I am standing on foreign soil sharing Jesus with a new friend, I hope to look back on all these trials. I hope to have an understanding about all this figurative lemonade and see all that God has taught us through it. So, when life gives you lemons, put your trust in a God who can help you make some of the sweetest lemonade you have ever tasted!
My family and I desire and covet your prayers and are thankful for those of you who already lift us up! Thank you to those who have decided to follow us on our God driven journey to the ends of the earth, I hope these posts inspire you and help you along your journey through this life. Maybe you don't yet know this God I have given my life to and would like to know more, maybe you are drowning in life's lemonade, or maybe you have a question for me, please feel free to comment and I will get back to you. Thanks again and BE BLESSED!
-K
Doyle and LR thank you for your encouraging words!
