lemonade comes from lemons

I sat and made Spanish flashcards at the kitchen table tonight and strategized my responsibilities in my head. 

There’s a book I’m trying to write, this blog takes effort and focus, I spoke at another church’s moms’ Bible study last week, and next weekend I am speaking at a college retreat. 
There are six loads of laundry that refuse to fold themselves and everyone in this family seems determined to eat three meals each day, plus snacks and desserts. 
I teach Spanish at the kids’ school this Monday and still have to homeschool three days this week, as usual. 
I am helping to plan a baby shower for a friend, and birthday parties for my sons. 
Four books have my mind craving time to read, and four kids and one man have my heart craving time to just sit and be. 
All the while, I have been feeling sick and I can't seem to kick it with regular medicine, so I am trying homeopathic and natural cures. 

While putting my medicine bottles away yesterday, I realized I was thinking about feeling sick and yet I was smiling. 

My heart is full of gratitude for the challenge and blessing of illness- it seemed weird until I traced the joy back to its source. There I found this thought:

I have never faced a difficult season without knowing God better on the other side of it. Exhaustion, fear, illness, failure, pain, offense, and sorrow have all drawn me closer to Jesus.  

Why should this be any different?

This scripture is ringing in my heart, in a loud, crackly, off-key voice- like the one my daughter uses to declare her joy when she’s playing:

"We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Romans 5:3-5

There is too much love being poured out of my challenges and problems for me to do anything but hold on to them and squeeze them until they’re empty.

I'm simply making lemonade. Life gives me the lemons, and love sweetens the deal. I just have to keep juicing those sour circumstances and trusting God. 

It's all going to end up delicious someday. I'm pretty sure this is the best year we have ever had, and these lemons are top notch.