It's such a bright pretty color, and it has these huge green leaves on the stem. To look at it, you'd never guess how incredibly sour tasting the actual fruit part is! When I think about a fruit, my first thought is of eating it! I personally would never eat a lemon by itself. It's not the least bit enjoyable. Peter and I gave both our kids lemons when they were babies just so we could laugh hysterically at the funny expression they made as they bit in to it! I know, that's horrible...but it was also funny!
Be careful with that lemon juice though! If the lemon juice squirts you in the eye, or gets in the tiniest cut, well, it hurts like a mug!
A lemon is one of those things in life that make me wonder exactly what God pictured us using them for when He created them? Was there a grand purpose, or did God just want to laugh at us like I laughed at my own kids?! I'm just kidding. There's a purpose to everything God does!
A lemon CAN be used, and used well, once you know the correct ways to use it!
I love, love, love drinking an ice cold glass of water with some fresh lemon juice squeezed in. Yum. It makes my mouth water right now just thinking about it! A little bit goes a long way though, so don't over-squeeze!
The lemon rind can be used in tons of cooking recipes. I'm actually baking lemon cakes this weekend that call for lemon zest (the rind) and lemon juice!
Lemon juice can also be used to clean with, shine stainless steel, keep other fruits from discoloring, and kill germs on cutting boards!
And there are tons of other uses as well. I don't like lemonade so that old adage "when life gives you a lemon, make lemonade" does NOT apply to me...but it may to you!
Like I said, a lemon is strange fruit. It's a fruit that's not really eaten as a fruit.
But even though it appears sour and useless upon first inspection, if you dig deeper and try harder, you can find so many ways to use this beautiful fruit.
My life is that way occasionally. Honestly, more often than not! On the outside, it looks pretty, bright...but on the inside a bit of sourness creeps in. An unexpected shock occurs and I make that scrunched-up face and stick my tongue out at the problem. Sometimes, I would rather put that lemon on the shelf and ignore it and it's sourness. But, like the lemon, God has allowed this problem here for a purpose at this specific time in my life. I have to dig deeper, look passed the sourness, and figure out where the good lies inside this particular lemon. And there's always a good! If I'm willing to put the effort into scraping the rind to get the zest of life, or putting pressure on it and working to get the juice out, it turns out good in the end.
I'm dealing with a bit of lemon right now, and it's been awesome to me, once I asked God to show me how to use it, to watch that lemon turn into something sweet instead of something sour.
When life serves you a lemon, don't just assume you're only choice is lemonade...make it creative, dig deeper and make that sour thing turn into something miraculously sweet in your life! That's my prayer for you and I both!
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