When Life gives you lemons...
During the sacrament (communion) at church last Sunday I was sitting there thinking, as I often do during such times, unless my children are crying, screaming, or talking when they should be sitting still and reverent. Anyhow, back to what I was saying, I honestly don't remember what I was thinking about. I do specifically remember having a thought pop into my head, a saying that I have heard probably thousands of times. It just popped into my head out of the blue. My train of thought would not have led me to this thought. That is when it is easy to recognize promptings from the Holy Ghost. It was quiet. It was an easy time to listen. I felt that it was so profound, and simple at the same time, that it could not be my thought:
Seems simple enough. But then I started thinking about it, and it just didn't seem exactly right, or somehow incomplete. As my thoughts rearranged the famous saying to make better sense of it, I thought this:
Now that makes a whole lot more sense. I am grateful for a living Heavenly Father who sends the Holy Ghost to my aide to give me promptings and guidance when I need it the most. This prompting thought was very much needed for me. Can I expound on it a little more?
You see, life is not perfect. Life is hard. We all have our own struggles and trials to deal with. We all have our own basket, tree, or orchard of sour and tart lemons that life has given us. Sometimes, the lemons see SO tart and SO sour it seems impossible to manipulate into lemonade. Sometimes we don't want to do the work to add sugar and water to the juice of the lemon. Sometimes, it seems too hard to do the work, because the water is uphill, all you have is your hands to squeeze the lemon, and the sugar is still in sugarcane form, or you can't find sugarcane and have to travel north for maple syrup or risk your life by going among bees to get honey. Making lemonade without the proper tools is a difficult task. An insurmountable task. The only way to make the perfect lemonade out of tart and sour lemons is to have the perfect recipe. How do you have the perfect recipe? Someone who has gone through the steps before gives it to you. But, first you have to ask. Once you get the perfect recipe from the architect of the recipe, then you will be successful.
Life is hard. It seems impossible sometimes. Sometimes we don't want to go through our trials because they seem so hard (okay, more like we don't want to go through our trials EVER). But, life is full of trials. They won't stop coming just because we want them to stop. Trials are a necessary part of life. It is through trials, big and/or small, that's we learn how to be the best we can be right? So, how do we make our trials/lemons into blessings/lemonade? There is one man who knows exactly what we have gone through. You got that right- Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, bleeding from every poor because He felt EVERY pain, EVERY injustice, EVERY sin, EVERYthing that we have ever gone through He has felt. What better person to go to for help. He knows exactly how to help us in our trials. That is why we PRAY first and then make lemonade. He can give us the recipe to make our trials/burdens light. He can give us the recipe to make our sour lemons into the best tasting lemonade EVER. We just have to let Him and ask Him for help. He will and He CAN.
How have you felt the influence of our Savior as you have gone to Him in prayer for a specific trial???? Tomorrow I will share my example...
Seems simple enough. But then I started thinking about it, and it just didn't seem exactly right, or somehow incomplete. As my thoughts rearranged the famous saying to make better sense of it, I thought this:
Now that makes a whole lot more sense. I am grateful for a living Heavenly Father who sends the Holy Ghost to my aide to give me promptings and guidance when I need it the most. This prompting thought was very much needed for me. Can I expound on it a little more?
You see, life is not perfect. Life is hard. We all have our own struggles and trials to deal with. We all have our own basket, tree, or orchard of sour and tart lemons that life has given us. Sometimes, the lemons see SO tart and SO sour it seems impossible to manipulate into lemonade. Sometimes we don't want to do the work to add sugar and water to the juice of the lemon. Sometimes, it seems too hard to do the work, because the water is uphill, all you have is your hands to squeeze the lemon, and the sugar is still in sugarcane form, or you can't find sugarcane and have to travel north for maple syrup or risk your life by going among bees to get honey. Making lemonade without the proper tools is a difficult task. An insurmountable task. The only way to make the perfect lemonade out of tart and sour lemons is to have the perfect recipe. How do you have the perfect recipe? Someone who has gone through the steps before gives it to you. But, first you have to ask. Once you get the perfect recipe from the architect of the recipe, then you will be successful.
Life is hard. It seems impossible sometimes. Sometimes we don't want to go through our trials because they seem so hard (okay, more like we don't want to go through our trials EVER). But, life is full of trials. They won't stop coming just because we want them to stop. Trials are a necessary part of life. It is through trials, big and/or small, that's we learn how to be the best we can be right? So, how do we make our trials/lemons into blessings/lemonade? There is one man who knows exactly what we have gone through. You got that right- Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, bleeding from every poor because He felt EVERY pain, EVERY injustice, EVERY sin, EVERYthing that we have ever gone through He has felt. What better person to go to for help. He knows exactly how to help us in our trials. That is why we PRAY first and then make lemonade. He can give us the recipe to make our trials/burdens light. He can give us the recipe to make our sour lemons into the best tasting lemonade EVER. We just have to let Him and ask Him for help. He will and He CAN.
How have you felt the influence of our Savior as you have gone to Him in prayer for a specific trial???? Tomorrow I will share my example...
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