Perfect Lemonade~ Just Tastes Like Spring

Spring is just around the corner and I am so excited I just can't contain myself.  It's almost  time for planting the pansies and starting the winter clean-up. I just get giddy this time of year when the birds are singing~ the frogs start croaking and I see the first bumble bee. I love watching God make all things new once again.

 

 It has been a long winter~ physically and spiritually but I am rejoicing that God does restore all that is dead and makes it new again. That is just something to celebrate today.

 

  Hope you are making a joyful noise unto God in your part of the world today.

Psalm 100

 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

• 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

We Will Survive~

A couple of years ago we had the worst drought here in Missouri. The ground was hard and tough. This tender little green plant grew anyway. Why? Because I nurtured it. I went out in the early morning hours and fed and watered it. After the heat of the day, I went back and gave it another drink. I can't say we had a bumper crop that year but our garden did survive.

 Some evenings I would go out to the garden to see my tender little plants stuck to the ground, all dried out and withered. I would slowly spray the plants with cool refreshing water and they would perk up once again. Eventually the plants got stronger and could take the heat of the day but I still had to water each and every day that year because of the drought. That little plant was at the mercy of the gardener's hands. If I had missed one day it would have withered up and died.

It's like that in the life of a believer in Christ. Our ability does not reside in us but in the Master who waters, feeds, and nourishes us. None of us are exempt from the punches that life throws at us. Storms are always going to brew up to threaten our stability. He is the Master Gardener that can sustain us. We can say with the Apostle Paul ~ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed: we are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed. (2Cor. 4:8-9)

Many travelers through life have gone through deep waters of pain and suffering. We can have complete confidence that whatever comes our way that God's grace is sufficient. We can celebrate that in our weakness He is made strong. Our God is bigger than any problem that we are facing today.

We Believe~