Lemons > Lemonade

Imagine you are walking into my house and you find a lemon and a glass of lemonade on my table. Which one would you choose? We all know that lemons are sour but lemonade is sweet. In this post, I will be writing about how lemons are better than lemonade. I know that sounds crazy, but let me explain.

The use of the word lemons here is a metaphor for trials, tribulations, hardships, difficulties, hurt and all that good-bad stuff. Now we know that lemons are really sour and taste awful, so why would that be better than lemonade? Lemons are healthier than lemonade so that's one advantage. Lemons are good for you, but lemonade is not.

To our foolish eyes, lemons are not good things, but let me tell you about my experience with them. About one year ago, I dated this girl whom I literally idolized. I remember March 5th, 2011, when she broke up with me. I cannot describe the kind of pain I felt. I cried for two hours and I wanted to die. But when struggling with that trial, I realized how broken I was. It was that experience that pulled me closer to God. I dedicated all that I am to the Lord and He took away that feeling of depression. If I had never went through that pain, I wouldn't feel the immense joy that I'm living in today.

Another lemon happened to me when I was on one of those ripstick things (google them if you don't know what they are) and I was going around the neighborhood with my friend Kenny. I got a call from my dad and he told me to come back to my two million dollar house. When I got there, I proceeded in sitting at our table with my other family members. There, my dad announced that he lost his job. At first I wasn't that shocked, but then it got really bad. We had to give up our high life where we could buy anything we wanted. I also had to move away from my awesome neighborhood that contained my really good friends. My family went from being rich to us barely being able to pay rent, and we might have to move into an apartment soon. But to tell the truth, I'm glad my dad lost his job and that I went through this lemon. Now I am more humble than I was, and that's the good that God could bring about through this situation.

I'm going to discuss one last lemon. I'm not really popular at my school. I have about five to ten people who will actually talk to me in a long conversation and show kindness to me. And even those people aren't always very good friends. I know many people are attracted to the idea of being popular, but I'm not. Why? Because I'm able to realized who my true friends are (the people who write this blog with me would be some of them). I know this really isn't a big deal, but sometimes I can hurt. But when it does, I can realize that God is using the pain to bring about His greater glory.

Now let's talk about lemonade. What is lemonade, in this metaphoric sense? Lemonade is any earthly pleasures, such as sex, drugs, partying, and money. But the problem with lemonade is that it's unhealthy for you. It's made with all this sugar that is really bad for us. However, we're attracted to lemonade because of its taste. At first we don't realize that the outcome of it will make us wish we had never given into it.

I remember that I used to bully people by things such as prank texting or prank calling. This is when you lie about who you are when calling or texting someone just for a laugh. I did this because I thought it was funny, but it did hurt people. I remember several instances when it got others really upset. It seemed fun at first, but then it made you feel awful. That's what lemonade does.

Another form of lemonade is lust. Like many guys, I struggle with this too. It seems really appealing at first, but then it fades away. Lust looks to you as if it's going to satisfy you, but it actually isn't worth it. At the moment you realize that you've treated a girl like an object and not the person who was made in God's image, you feel guilt because as a Christian, we know we shouldn't be doing that. The only thing lemonade does is destroy.

For those struggling with lemons, there is hope. Read Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:2-4 to see how good things can come from bad things. A verse that really helped me out was John 16:33 because it assured me that I could overcome the hardship in my life, because Jesus had overcome the world. Remember that Jesus promised that He would be with us always, even in times of trail.

Lemons are better than lemonade because they bring about a greater joy. All lemonade does is destroy you because it is unhealthy. I hope I have demonstrated this well. The outcome of lemons, which is something good, is far, far better than the guilt caused by lemonade. I'd rather stick with a love that lasts forever than a pleasure that lasts for five minutes.

Intro: Matthew

Hello, my name is Matthew and I am yet another contributor to this awesome blog. I write a blog called Loving Christ With Your Mind (LCWYM). In my blog, I write about apologetics and defending the Christian faith. I really wish to write some posts on this blog that discuss how to witness to those who don't know Christ. Let me start with discussing who I am and what I mainly aim to accomplish.

I was raised into a "Christian" home (and still am). My family called itself Christian just because we believed in Jesus. Throughout the years before I got saved, I was mainly focused on religion and trying to please God with my works. I was absolutely terrified of hell, and I wrongly thought that I had to do something to go to heaven. This all changed last summer when I truly got into a relationship with the Lord.

One day, my dad brought me to this awesome church. We were just kind of visiting. One thing I really enjoyed about it was how awesome the music was. The first service I attended was on Easter, and my dad and I continued to go to that church. In the time around the summer the pastor talked a lot about salvation and what it meant to be saved. One verse that he went over really spoke to me. It was Ephesians 2:8-9, and this is what it says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

It was an amazing moment. I finally realized that I didn't have to do anything to go to heaven. All I had to do was trust in God's saving grace that works cannot earn. Now let me talk about how I got into apologetics.

Well I was a new real Christian who had just been saved from sin and religion. I wanted to go show Christ to the world. I remember one day that my sister introduced me to this app on my iPhone called opinionated (now called Thumb). I started showing my faith on there, and there were many atheists on that application. They completely destroyed my faith, and I really did not know why I believed what I believed. I really wanted to believe that there was a God who loved, for I had just recently struggled with depression.

One day I almost gave up on my belief in Christianity. I considered becoming agnostic. But what's really cool, though, is what good God could bring about through this situation. I started to search for reasons to believe in the Bible. I found that there was so much (which you can check out on my other blog). I was soon gaining more and more faith day by day.

But another obstacle hit me: my sin. I always tried to overcome my sin, but I found that my own efforts were never enough. Throughout my fights with temptation, I thought of a line from a Relient K song called For the Moments I Feel Faint. The lyric is, "I think I can't, I think I can't, but I think You can, I think You can." What this line means is that we cannot do anything without God.

I can't imagine something more true than this. Throughout all my hardships and my sin, God never gave up on me. That's what agape is. Agape is the Greek word for unconditional love. God's love is not like human love. His is unconditional. We humans often hold a mindset that if someone does a certain thing, we won't love them anymore. I hope that my friends and I can write some posts describing how to live showing agape. A Christian is one who loves God and others, and my firmest intention is to show others to Christ.

Give me no glory. This blog is for the Lord. May God use it to bless you. I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope you look forward to more.