Sweet From Sour

Sweet from Sour

Bible Blast: Read Psalm 42:1-5

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! Psalm 42:5

Years ago, my husband and I started a community-wide event called Lemon-AID! It was a huge county-wide lemonade sale hosted by kids in their own backyards. Our purpose? To fight child abuse, which means children being harmed by adults. We sold thousands and thousands of gallons of lemonade and made thousands of dollars, just by letting kids help other kids! That event reminds me of this famous quote: “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”

What do you think that means?

Most people would say that because it’s so sour, a lemon isn’t good for much unless you do something with it. So you could interpret this quote as meaning, when something happens in life that seems really bad, see what good you can bring out of it.

That’s exactly what George Eyser did. He was born in the late 1800s, and when he was a boy, his left leg was run over by a train. The doctors had to amputate most of his leg, leaving him with an artificial leg made out of wood. (There’s the lemon.) Nowadays, artificial limbs are much more high-tech and realistic than the one George had.

George liked sports, so he began to train as a gymnast for the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis in spite of his wooden leg. He amazed everyone when he won six medals in one day! Three of the medals were gold, two were silver, and one was bronze. (There’s the lemonade.)

It would have been very easy for George to look down where his leg used to be and just be discouraged 24/7. Instead, he decided to do what he would have done if he had both legs: compete in sports. It turns out he was really good!

If you get handed a lemon in life, tell God how you feel about it and then ask him how you can use it for something good. Don’t just give up and stay discouraged. God has a plan for everything.

Girl Gab: Make some Luscious Lemonade together while you talk about bad things that God can use for good! You can find the recipe in the Wacky Appendix.