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Are you making lemonade? A Food for thought blog post

I am sure you have heard the phrase, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” right? Well, it’s true … in so many instances. Take job hunting for example. You could be looking and looking for hours on end for the perfect job … one that will suit you to a tee … the perfect balance of excitement so you don’t get bored, downtime so you don’t get overwhelmed, great pay so you can pay your bills, and location so you don’t get exhausted from the trip before you even arrive! Unfortunately, even after all your searching the endless job postings, it appears there is “nothing” out there. Well, obviously that’s not true. In reality, there are jobs out there … just nothing that you were willing to do. 

Willing is the key word. If someone were desperate enough, they just may be willing to do almost anything … even a job they might not consider “perfect.” When someone chooses to be willing, everything changes.

It’s like a light bulb moment. All of a sudden, you could be looking at a job posting and think, “I could do that.” Then, once that thought starts to take root hope begins to form.  It’s like a window opens to new possibilities.  You start to realize, I’ve seen a lot of these postings recently … this is a high demand job … this is what’s available out there right now … and then the thought comes again … I could do that.”

At that point, your creativity may start to chime in. You may think, this isn’t what I was wanting to do but this is what’s available. Am I going to take it? Am I going to take what’s been made available to me and make the best of it … maybe even get creative and see if I can make it into something great? 

You may realize the job has all the major elements you were looking for … just in a different package from what you were expecting. You may realize you have to make a choice: Do I want to be frustrated, or do I want to be flexible? Do I want to take these “lemons” and make “lemonade?”

They also say “necessity is the mother of invention.” If someone didn’t have something they needed while cooking, for example, they may try something they did have on hand … and, without realizing it, they may inadvertently have come up with a new “invention” that tasted far better than the original.

So, today, are you choosing to make lemonade out of the lemons life has thrown at you? Be encouraged to know that you are not alone,  Jesus has said,  “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV)

 

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed (A Timeless Truths blog post)

 

tulips

Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Perhaps you didn’t want to get up at all … with all the stress going on in your life right now. It may have seemed much more appealing to just bury yourself underneath the covers and hide from the world … forever. Then, whether you liked it or not, your bladder had other plans … and you were forced to face the day … ready or not. Having taken care of business, you start wandering around the house with a million thoughts in your head … all of them vying for attention … all at the same time. Realizing it would be best to at least try to focus on one thing at a time, you remember some flowers you had seen just beginning to come up on the other side of the house … so you go to look to see what progress had been made. It was then that you saw how the buds had developed into beautiful yellow tulips. It was then that your spirits were lifted … and it was then that you realized you had a choice. You could choose to be thankful. You could choose to be grateful … and, in so doing, you could choose to appreciate the fact that you, in reality, really were blessed (and not just by the appearance of flowers). That one, seemingly inconsequential act of choosing to look for the good in the development of flowers became the start – became the inspiration you needed – to choose to look for the good in other areas of your life. Let’s be honest, it doesn’t take much effort to see all the obviously bad things all around us in our lives. To actually see the good takes effort … to see the good takes practice … to see the good takes an intentional choice on our part to actually look for it … to actually search for it … even when it may appear (on the surface) to be nowhere around. Philippians 4:8,9 The Message (MSG) tells us, “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” So, the timeless truth for today is to LOOK. Look for the good. Look for the beautiful. Look for every opportunity (even in the small things) to see and comprehend all the ways God shows his love towards you … and that (in and of itself) will yield the positive results of you actually becoming genuinely thankful, grateful, and blessed.

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