I love lemonade. Good lemonade. And in my opinion, one certain fast food chain has the best. Their diet lemonade is my secret addiction. I could drink the stuff daily - and alot of times I do. I recently found out why their lemonade is so good. They use real lemons. No artificial flavorings or powders from which alot of lemonades are made. Just real lemons. Real lemons that are squeezed fresh daily. I'm sure it's not a fun job, but the use of real lemons is what makes their lemonade oh so good.
It's an understatement to say I'm a happy camper when I'm able to have one of these diet lemonades. I love the stuff like a fat kid loves cake and eagerly look forward to it when I know I'm going to get one. Such was the case one day a few weeks ago. I had been anticipating that cool tartness all afternoon and couldn't wait for the first sip. But as I sucked the first swig up through my straw, the first thing to hit my mouth wasn't that cool liquidy goodness I was expecting. Instead it was hard, sharp and bitter. It was a seed. That's right - a seed. And pulp. A whole lot of thick gooey pulp. My happy camper attitude quickly became more sour than the lemonade and my whole mindset towards the rest of the drink changed.
I took off the lid and peeked inside to find a thick, pulp-filled lemonade with seeds floating throughout. This was not the norm by any means and I was sadly disappointed. The standard had not been met on the lemonade scale of perfection. That's the only time I've ever not finished one of those lemonades. But after that first sip of stringy pulp and hard bitter seeds, I just couldn't stomach any more. I felt like a kid at Christmas unwrapping a present and hoping for the latest and greatest toy, but instead all he finds is underwear. I was more than disappointed.
I found out the reason for the faulty lemonade that day. Apparently there had been some trouble with the strainer and it wasn't working properly. It was getting clogged and alot of pulp and seeds were slipping through into the juice when normally they would have been filtered out. A couple of days later I was assured that the machine had been repaired and sure enough, my next lemonade was back to perfection.
I don't know about you but my strainer gets clogged and goes on the blink sometimes too. Things I wish were filtered out sometimes slide through. Words slip by that I later wish I hadn't said. Actions may get through that cause hurt feelings. I may be the hard bitter seeds in someone's lemonade because my strainer isn't kept working properly. Daily surrender to God is the only thing that can help keep it running smoothly.
"May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." ~ Psalm 19:14
"Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." ~ I Corinthians 10:32,33
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