Take the lemons in your life and open up a lemonade stand
Losing a checker or ping pong game, a race or boxing match, a board game or not winning the lottery - these are examples of when we can "suffer defeat." Friendly, healthy competition has winners and losers. It doesn't define who we are as individuals.
However, in other life situations, we allow defeat to define us: bankruptcy, divorce, fired from a job, loss of a limb, debilitating disease, even things like tragedy, retirement, incarceration, or unexpected loss of a loved one. We often file these devastating events under "defeat" and go through a period of mourning, depression, or shame. We can feel as though "life is over" or that "we're a loser" or "we'll never amount to much because of...." (fill in the blank).
If we stay too long in these things they become baggage that we carry with us into each new season of life. The compounding weight can become very cumbersome.
A boxing match at Madison Square Garden was at a fever pitch as the two men were evenly matched. As the final bell rang, judges put in their scores. The announcer took the microphone, in the middle of the ring, to announce the winner of the Championship of the United States. Young Ernie lost by a technical point due to a judge's opinion. He felt cheated and ripped off.Then WWII took place and he became a paratrooper to jump behind enemy lines prior to D-Day. A sniper bullet hit the grenade in his pocket and he lit up the night sky like a fireworks display. A medic found him and got him to the Red Cross. He ended up in the hospital for a year in a full body plaster cast. His hopes of contending for the boxing title was over. Ernie was devastated. He felt lost. He was a fighter. Now, what?
Returning home, a wounded war vet, unable to box, he met a young lady and within a few months they got married. He was 26. They married on her 20th birthday. He didn't want to marry a teenager. In his despair of not being able to box, Ernie felt defeated, defined by circumstances out of his control to have another shot at the title.
He was a hasbeen, a nobody. That was the story his lame leg reminded him of every day. One day, his wife said to him, "Ernie, if you can't be a champion, make a champion."
I grew up around young men that my dad, Ernie, was turning into champions. His boys won and lost many fights. That's life. You get up and go again...full steam ahead. Root for the underdog is what dad drilled into his four children. He understood that with someone in your corner, cheering you on, giving you counsel from their perspective, while in the midst of the fight, you will go farther.
Once he made the shift from letting the past define him, he moved forward with an optimism that touched the lives of hundreds of people in his lifetime.
He took the lemons life handed him and made lots of lemonade.
His message: Defeat is not defeat unless you quit, shut down and give up.
"Though I fall I will rise; Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." Micah 7:8
"For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble (fall away) when calamity strikes." Proverbs 24:16
We may suffer adversity time and again however we can rise above it. Our Creator God instilled within us the capability to turn seeming defeats into great opportunities to achieve even loftier goals. Creativity is at the heart of God. Just look around at people, animals, and plants; even snowflakes are individual and unique.
So, EPIC Conquerors, rise up and stand tall in Christ Jesus for greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. You are more than an overcomer. Take the lemons in your life and open up a lemonade stand...people are thirsty for what you've learned in life so they can be refreshed and rejuvenated to keep on keepin' on.
The battle is real but the victory is assured.
Dr. Judy Bauer
Direct link:http://bit.ly/Fisherofmen
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