Last night at our church's outdoor worship speaker we had a wonderful speaker. A vibrant young woman who in the past had struggled with eating disorders, depression, and self-injurous behaviors shared how she had been delivered from those things and was experiencing new life in Christ.
There were two things that stuck out to me during her talk. The first is how she has chosen not to be ruled by the diagnoses and labels of her past. She talked about how she is claiming the new language of how God views her. Instead of "anorexic" or "depressed" she chooses "more than a conqueror" or "fearfully and wonderfully made" to define her. I thought this was excellent to hear in regards to the children that I have who have the diagnoses they do. I want to see them as God sees them.
She also talked about how she had come to think of the phrase, 'When life gives you lemon's, make lemonade." She said that she had changed it a bit to say, "When life gives you lemon's, let God make lemonade." She then went on to ask "what happens to all the lemonade?"
I began thinking about that -- all the lemons that have been thrown my way in the past 14 years of parenting hurt kids, and how in so many ways God has been able to step in and make lemonade of them. And the answer to the question, "What happens to the lemonade" is easy. It gets served to you!
When we go through hard things and God blesses them, we need to find ways to share what we have learned and how we have grown with others.
Lemonade, anyone?
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