A Blessed Calm After the Lemon Storm

I just returned from walking the girls to the bus stop. I must say it is so beautiful outside and it was very easy to let the morning "talk" to me. Just walking in the brisk air, smelling bacon cooking somewhere - probably the diner down the street, seeing the sun stream its glory above the rooftops, and admiring the gem-like glisten of the leftover rain and dew on the grass brings a calm to my spirit. I welcomed it this morning. Running thru the conversation that I had with Heidi yesterday and again digesting what she said made more sense to me than the "bombardment" of lemons I had been receiving. She reminded me that God sometimes lets us do a great deal of leg work for something we "want" just so it can be used for something someone else "needs". Although that "want" wasn't the onset of the "storm", it softened the blow to see a different picture of events. That, my friends, was the lemonade from that nasty storm. Add to that the friends that prayed for me and a daughter that saw beyond my anxiety to the needs of another, and the lemonade just gets sweeter.

"Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower so sweet,
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat."
Peter, Paul & Mary

My analogy -

• the sweet flower - the calm and beauty of our lives - when everything is going good - growing us strong to accept the lemons that will surely follow
• the fruit of the lemon - our trials - when we are reminded that the sweet flower must mature into a healthy fruit - even at the expense of being a little "bitter" tasting
• the outcome - the sweet beverage we can make from such a tart, but beautiful fruit - the operative word is can - we must choose to make the lemonade :)

I thank God for my Lemon Storms and the sugar cubes of friends he has give me to sweeten my life and I thank Him for the calm that follows after the storms!