When Life Gives You Lemons Make Limoncello

When my family and I arrived in Naples, Italy we found out our luggage was lost. Without our luggage in tow we continued on to Sorrento. We were assured it would be brought to us soon. After 24 hours, there was no sign of our luggage. We left the hotel two days later with the assurance that when we came back in the afternoon it would be there. We only had a week in Italy. We had a tight schedule. We chose not to buy new clothes because we kept being led on to believe that it was going to be there. When we got back from touring that day excited to change clothes, to our dismay it was not there again! I was freaking out inside. I was trying not to yell at the front desk girl but it was becoming increasingly harder. She was our interpreter. She claimed that the final offer was for my husband to travel an hour back to Naples Airport. He was to pay a driver to take him there and back. That was it. Now not only would they not bring the luggage, they also would not pay for the driver. I just could not calm down. I was pacing around praying "God help." I wanted to be a good sport in front of the front desk girl and my children. I was failing. I hid in the bathroom praying that God would help me to let this go and except the deal they made. But I just wanted to fight back. My husband left with the driver.
My kids were saying "Mom stop, what is the big deal?" I yelped back "The big deal is we only have so much time and we can't miss being together. Time is wasting." I was so disappointed in myself that I just couldn't get it together. I simply said "While dad is gone we can go to dinner." We picked a spot and started out on foot.
All of a sudden my daughter stammered "Stop, I need to run back and leave dad a note to tell him where to go."
Things lightened up as we ordered and the delicious food came out. We actually started to laugh. We weren't quite finished with our dinner when my husband appeared in the doorway of the restaurant. He had a huge grin and actually had a dance in his steps toward us. I thought to myself, what is going on? He started telling us about his adventure with the Italian driver. It sounded like everything went fast and smooth. No glitches to get the luggage, just in and out. To my husband’s delight the driver spoke English. His story and company were totally interesting. My husband had his own mini tour of Italy. Sorrento is known for their lemons. Every tree you drive by has lemons. Everywhere you went they were selling lemons.
What seemed like a "sour" part of our trip suddenly was turned around and becoming quite "sweet." The driver gave his family secret recipe of Limoncello. My husband was so excited. I was filled with peace when I saw how God took care of everything.
I apologized to my family. I learned that when life gives you lemons you can either get emotionally worked up or wait it out and accept the things you cannot change. My husband learned when life gives you lemons make Limoncello!

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 9 NIV).

What do you do when life gives you lemons?

Prayer:  Lord as life goes by help me to accept the things I can't change. The things I can change give me the courage to do. Thank You.