When Life Give Lemons

How quickly any life's journey can be turned upside down! I know. I have been there. My family has been there these past few months. Or years... Well, since the pandemic hit the whole globe!

As soon as my husband was to retire, we had our plan to downsize. We even bought a new house in Florida. But before the ground was even dug and its foundation prepped, my husband had a change of mind and we decided to cancel the plan. Unable to visit his aging parents and family back in our country, he had a mixed feeling of wanting to move there and be settled when our original plan was to retire here where we've been residing for so many, many years. 

I get it. A sudden change of life's routine can be stressful and overwhelming. Like him. From being a busybody to all of a sudden, merely has no work to do like he used to.  Except to eat, sleep or fix whatever needs to be done in our house. My husband is the type who loves to do something and make useful of each passing minute. Slowly, that period has been subtly stealing my husband's joyful heart. At the same time, his mind is being filled with worries of life. All the worrying and all the unknowns manifested with lesser appetite, broken sleep at nights, and having no interest anymore with the things our family used to enjoy. It became a cycle. Happy in one day. Sad for more. It took a toll on me and our son also. My son and I felt helpless seeing a stranger we used to know as my husband, his Dad.

How true of that phrase... "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" But how do we make lemonade? What is the proper way to make lemonade that will overcome the sours of this ever changing life's journey?

Happy conversations, enjoying each other's companies, laughters always saturating each corner in our home, strength from our triple binded cord, our shared daily petitions morning and night... They all suffered.

We still pray. We know that is the vital lifeline we hold on to, to make our purposes still work.

I know the way that no matter where we go, our ultimate destination is never in any place of this earth. I know the truth that no matter what we plan or what step we take, God is the One Who directs that. I know the life that in this dark valley we're walking on, His Light will guide us and will never leave us alone in the dark.

So... When life gives us lemons...No!!! We don't make lemonade. We seek God first! The One Who promised to those who love Him that He would never leave us nor forsake us and would be with us up to the end of age...

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. - James 1:2-8 (NLT)