If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That is an often repeated quote, and has lost some luster because of it. The intent is good, but people get tired of it. I do, too, which is why I’m writing about that little bit of wisdom.

On the surface, it has good advice. Make the most of the situation, and don’t let it get you down. I guess you could also say it means to look for the good in everything. Admittedly, I can say that all day long and still have trouble doing it.

But, that is why we need to look beyond the surface of the lemon quote. I’ve never made lemonade from scratch, but I have heard enough to know what the ingredients are. One of the main ingredients is sugar. Without it, you just have diluted lemon juice. Cold as you might make it, lemon juice is not a refreshing drink for most people. If you’re supposed to make lemonade out of life’s lemons, you must also have been given sugar. That means the situation isn’t all bad.

Now, to see if I can clarify something while appearing to muddy it at the same time. Life is pretty generic in that phrase. Life doesn’t have the power or authority to give you anything. The Life Giver, God, does. He will allow us to encounter tough times. Some of these tough times are to take us down a notch when we’ve gotten to arrogant. They allow us to see we aren’t as awesome as we think. Some of them are to teach us to trust God fully. Either way, the situations are lemons, sour, to us. But, we can be assured that God will bring something good from them. Naturally, this is the sugar, sweet, part.

So, if you get hold of lemons in life, go ahead and trust in God, make lemonade.

All this, and I don’t even like lemonade that well.