How to Handle it When Life Gives You Lemons

Life isn’t always easy. Sometimes we get dealt a difficult hand. Today’s post is not meant to downplay those times in life.

However, there are several ways to handle it when life hands you one of those lemons.

1. Turn sour. Sadly, this is where most people end up. They get handed a tough lot in life and they allow their situation to make them bitter about everything. Frankly, it takes a great deal of work and desire to avoid becoming sour on life, but it can be done.

2. Eat the lemon. In other words, there are some who just internalize everything and never let it out. However, there is at least one positive here: at least they are taking in something nourishing. It is difficult, though, to do much that is positive when we respond this way.

3. Make lemonade. This is the old saying, right? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Of course, the idea here is to make the best of a bad situation. What a great way to live, but it takes strong, strong effort.

4. Make limeade. What??? I mean, step out and do something that others never expected. There are scores of stories of people who have taken a bad situation and not only made it good, but changed the world. One famous example is Alexander Graham Bell, who turned his wife’s hearing problem, ultimately, into the telephone. He made limeade!

5. Plant the lemon seeds. Let your struggle turn out to influence countless others for good. Some of the best people to help others in times of struggle are those who have been through struggles themselves. They have let their difficulties breed something positive that they are now able to share.

6. Take it to the One who created lemons. This is the greatest answer, because it means we are taking our struggles before the One who can ultimately make all the difference. “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).

QUESTION: How can we make the best of a “lemon” situation?

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photo credit: KitAy on Flickr creative commons