Habakkuk 3:18 - Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

What do you do when life gives you lemons and difficult situations seem to overwhelm you? 

 I want to preface everything I say today with, God is amazing and serving Him is incredible, and I don’t want you to feel sorry for me at all. Sometimes life just gives you some tough things to go through. Honestly though, compared to some, I feel life is pretty good. I have a wonderful husband of over 27 years. We have 10 beautiful and fairly healthy children who love the Lord and haven’t caused us any heartache and even challenge me in my Christian life. We live on a beautiful tropical island where it doesn’t snow ever. (I know some people wouldn’t like that, but I’m ok with it. I am very thankful for our air conditioning though! :)

The last 2 1/2 years of my life have dealt quite a few lemons - I think most people would agree to this statement no matter where you live.

Of course, covid being the biggest disruption of life where our ministry pretty much stopped. 

We were given cards where we could only be out of our homes on certain days to buy groceries, unless for an emergency or we were working.

Children were not allowed out of their homes. Our children did not leave our yard for about a year and a half.  Everything pretty much shut down. 

Next, our oldest daughter was graduating from college. God had miraculous paid my way back to the states, but that flight was cancelled as well as the reason I was going back, and her graduation was also postponed. Fast forward a few months, Allyson’s graduation was rescheduled, and she was also getting engaged. We could leave the Philippines, but we could not get back in unless we were citizens; so again we had to miss these important events. 

We also missed her wedding, since we couldn’t get back into the country yet. All I can say is God’s grace, but it was definitely a tough time and many tears were shed. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I do get depressed; I do struggle at times with frustration; I do wonder why things can’t be easier or why does everything have to be tough sometimes, but I try very hard not to live there. In fact over the last few years, I’ve had many conversations with God about certain things in my life that seem “unfair!” And God has been working on me in this area very much in the last couple of years. One of my very favorite Bible characters is Joseph. 

Joseph endured many hard challenges in life, but yet you never read anything about him complaining. He took each hard thing and rose to the top; he worked hard and overcame the many challenges that God put in his life. And when it was all said and done, as his brothers stand before him, begging to be his servants, he said in Genesis 50:20 - “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” 

I’m going to share with you how God has helped me turn my lemons into lemonade and what I do to help turn my frown and sour attitude into a good attitude. I’m not perfect by any means, but these things have helped me greatly over the last couple of years especially.

1. Stay in God’s Word. In the last 2 years especially, I’ve found myself needing more of God’s Word, not less. Find the best time of your day and give that time to God. Find a time where distractions are the least and where you are awake and not falling asleep. For me that time comes very early in the morning before my house wakes up. When I had small children at home, that time was in the afternoon during nap time or in small chunks throughout the day. There is not a one size fits all when it comes to growing as a Christian. What works for me, may not work for you; but there are ingredients that must be added to the Christian life in order to grow and be all that God wants us to be. The Bible cannot be left out of having the right kind of attitude in life. Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 say almost the same thing, “...it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.” We need God’s Word daily! I would also recommend some kind of reading plan.

2. When I’m having a rough day, I like to put on some good Christian music. Songs like we sing in church. Songs that get my heart and mind thinking about about the Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, My Savior’s Love and other songs of faith. Ephesians 5:19 - “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;" And sing those songs, don’t just listen to them. The Bible says nothing about listening to songs and hymns and spiritual songs, but it does say singing!

3. This next thing is probably one of the things that has helped me the most besides my Bible and that is counting my blessings - When I start thinking about the good things in my life, I can’t help but praise the Lord for all the good things He has given me. Even in the midst of really hard and crummy things, God can help me see the many blessings in life. Let me tell you what I thought of over the last 2 years when some of the lemons came my way...

   • So what’s good about covid...not much... :) One thing I enjoyed about covid, is my life slowed down a bit. I was able to enjoy my family a bit more. My husband was home a lot more, I could spend more time teaching my children, and we could play more games, and things like that. I also enjoyed watching my children become closer friends during this time. They had no other friends to hang around, so they learned to enjoy one another’s company. Oh there was still fighting, but I saw them working things out and learning to get along.

   • I only went shopping for necessities, so I didn’t spend much money. ;)(My husband was happy about that one!)

   • Finding the good in missing Allyson’s graduation and wedding were a bit harder and ones that I did struggle with a long time. Then I remembered missionaries of times past and how they wouldn’t even get news of births, deaths, weddings, etc. for months after the event because of the slowness of mail. I watched my daughter walk across the platform; my husband still gave Allyson away via internet; and we could see all those thing happen in real time. Something not even possible 20 years ago!! I was thankful to be a 21st century missionary! I also watched people love and help Allyson and Joshua with things that they probably wouldn’t have done had she not been a missionary kid. What a blessing! The rehearsal was much harder and emotional than the actual wedding. I was so happy for her. And you know what?! When they left that reception, Allyson didn’t care one bit that I was halfway around the world!!! Probably didn’t even cross her mind! :)

So you see, it’s training your mind to Count your Blessings instead of staring at the problems. 

4. And sometimes when I really can’t think of anything good to think about and can’t see the good in a situation, I remember that I have a God that loves me so very much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross for me so that I can have an eternal home in Heaven some day. Out of the almost 8 billion people on this Earth God let me hear about the greatest news in all the world, and I get to serve Him in the Philippines and tell others that good news also. So sometimes, I don’t get to do all that I want to do; sometimes I’m inconvenienced with things that don’t go my way or are foreign to me because I live in a foreign country. But that’s ok because someone will hear the Gospel and their eternal destiny will be forever changed and that is totally worth it! I want to please Him with my life. 

So sometime you have to take those lemons, roll them, squeeze them, add a little bit of sugar, and let God make that delicious glass of lemonade.