Skip to main content

Just Say No to Lemonade?




As a young child I went through the dreaded allergy testing where they pricked my arms and back with different known allergens and waited for a reaction. My biggest reaction was to citrus foods, which crushed my mother as she'd always nursed every cold or sniffle with orange juice. I was okay knowing this was bad since I didn't like orange juice anyway. 

So life went on.

I could walk right by Orange Julius in the mall without any sorrow since orange wasn't my fave.

But along came summer. And fresh-squeezed lemonade, served in big sizes at the county fair. I looked forward to that lemonade every summer and that one large cup never seemed to bother me.

Hmmmm. Maybe I'm not allergic anymore, I thought, as I got older. I'd have a lemonade or two every summer, without reaction.

Then I got brave and started making my own at home. I perfected it and a few years ago started buying lemons every year, late August, when I just ached for lemonade. I'd use one lemon a day and make myself a single serving every afternoon, adding just the right amount of sugar for perfection. 

I'd be fine for about two weeks and then I'd start noticing changes. My eyes would seep and the skin around my eyes would crack and get painful. I developed a rash that almost looked like I got punched in the face (or was hit by a flying lemon....).

So off of the lemonade I'd go. Apparently, the citrus builds up in my body and causes me to react this way. 

But do I learn?

No. Every summer I am tempted by the lemonade. And I'm fine when I have one glass here and there. But then I want more.And Trader Joe's sells organic fresh lemonade that is better than what I can make. So here I am, again, with a sore eye (this time it's my eyelid), and waving farewell to the lemonade.

Every year I think it won't hurt me. 

How often do we treat sin the same way? 

I can do that. 
No one will know.

Followed with:

I got away with it.
It didn't hurt me.

The lies we convince ourselves with never help us.

I need to treat the lemonade as the poison it is to my body instead of allowing it to build up over time. And we need to look at all sin in the same way. We need to turn from it and avoid it. We need to not allow ourselves to be swayed by things that will inevitably cause harm.

One little look at pornography.
One small lie to avoid trouble.
One careless word.
One thought of someone other than your spouse.
One haughty look.
One bit of gossip between friends.
One selfish desire fulfilled.
One bad attitude.
One murderous thought.
One uncontrolled outburst.

Can lead to more.

We are not our own when we come to Christ. We were bought with the price of His life, His blood. We are admonished to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits.

Don't allow the little sins to build up. Our decisions and choices every day have bigger impacts than we realize.

Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus.
I'll be over here tending to my broken skin. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Front Row Seat

  If you've been around me any length of time, you'll know I love having a front row seat when possible. Church. Concerts. Comedy shows. Auctions. I want to be front and center, where the action is, so I don't get distracted and miss something. I want to be part of the event and front is where it's at.  Lately I've had a front row seat to some things that I wish I could unsee. My mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis and the last year and a half of watching her slow and steady decline into a world of unknowns has taken a toll.  I tend to hold every emotion inside. Always have. I've learned -these past fifteen months or so- that this is bad for my health. Stress levels are impacting how I feel. Palpitations, and a diagnosis of "harmless" PACs, have left me trying to manage this stress. It's gotten easier but, I'll admit, I still have things shoved down inside. And then along came CDH. A diagnosis I'd not heard of before it was given to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sweet Zoey

 Zoey - August 10, 2020 When we found her I didn't realize I needed her. Sure, she needed us, she was living in woods, alone, surviving on whatever she could find. She was nine months old, the vet later told me when I took her in for a check-up, still unsure I wanted to keep this undernourished mutt. We'd been on vacation in southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border, in the middle of the woods. I was on the porch when I saw her trotting down the dirt road. A little brown dog. I whistled and she stopped to look at me from across the lawn. Then she continued on her way. Later that night, the family was watching a movie we'd brought (no cable service out there!) and suddenly this furry face popped up in the window, scaring my husband out of his seat. We fed her some people food and went to bed.  She was still there in the morning. We asked around and no one knew where she came from. We fed her some more and she stayed. The next day we went and bought some dog food, f...
5 comments
Read more

Selling items on Craigslist and common scams

I'm selling a couple of things on Craigslist. I've done this a few times before and always, the first interested parties I hear from are scammers. This time in my listing I specified that I will not take money orders and asked that scammers not contact me. Here's the first interested party that I heard from: mr robins journeycristina@gmail.com Is it still available for sale... I replied: Yes it is. Here's the second contact from the first interested party. Note that the name of the sender and the email of the sender are different than the ones from the first contact: Clyde Wright fisherr.mattyy@gmail.com Hello, Thanks for the swift response, just to let you know that am okay with the condition and price of the item, am ready for its purchase and my form of payment will be by sending you Check via UPS next day delivery. I'll be responsible for the pick-up and the pick up money will be included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable pick up company to s...
28 comments
Read more