Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

 

Have you ever felt like life wasn’t fair,

Like you had been given a lemon?

Then check out today’s devotional,

And discover what you can do with lemons.

Several years ago Sandy & I met the sweetest woman;

she was full of loving kindness.

Her sweet spirit was so pleasant to be around. 

I knew that her life wasn’t always easy,

but I never knew the hardships she had faced

until I met with her family after her death.

When Esther was born her mother died giving her birth.

She met the man of her dreams

and he was murdered on their front porch.

Leaving her to raise seven very young children

with next to nothing.

Some say she was lucky to have found a man

who would marry her with so many children

and he was a blessing.

They had three more children

which made her an active mother of ten.

Her second husband was a military man

and this meant she would be an army wife

and mother raising her kids in military camps.  

The marriage struggled and ended in divorce.

I met Esther’s ex-husband in the hospital, January 6, 2000.

He lived up to the military reputation

of being a very hard and tough guy.

But in that hospital room he began to weep

as I shared Christ’s love for him.

I followed up on her ex-husband

 after he left the hospital to live in a nursing home.

This is where I met Esther,

she still cared for her ex-husband;

and the two of them asked me to marry them

so that Esther could care for Bud until the day he died.

Bud died August 3, 2000, when Esther was 60 years old.

At age 64, Esther was diagnosed with cancer

and went through chemo and radiation.

She enjoys a short time of remission,

but died May 1, 2009 at the age of 68.

I shared with those who attended her funeral

that I saw her as “a sugar jar full of sugar.”

She had gotten a lot of lemons in her life, 

but she never got bitter.

She never considered herself a victim.

She squeezed her lemons, they never squeezed her,

and poured out a lot of sugar

and enjoyed life with her lemonade.  

When life gets hot this summer, enjoy your lemonade!

I will never forget Esther, I hope you won’t either.

Scripture Reading

James 1:2-8 NIV

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers,

whenever you face trials of many kinds,

3 because you know that the testing of your faith

develops perseverance.

4 Perseverance must finish its work

so that you may be mature and complete,

not lacking anything.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom,

he should ask God,

who gives generously to all without finding fault,

and it will be given to him.

6 But when he asks,

he must believe and not doubt,

because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea,

blown and tossed by the wind.

7 That man should not think

he will receive anything from the Lord;

8 he is a double-minded man,

unstable in all he does.