L is for Lemonade Days

This is one of my favorite pictures. It represents to me what many moms hope for their children – memories of lazy summer days where they haven’t a care in the world - sipping lemonade, lying on the docks, swimming in the pool, building forts and just having fun. For several summers and a few Christmases we packed up the kids and drove 15 hours to Oregon to visit my in-laws. They lived on 11 acres and we would travel there not only to see them, but also to build precious childhood memories for our children. Memories of endless summer days when the toughest decision you have to make is what flavor of snow cone you want, the biggest obstacle you must overcome is learning to wait your turn for the slide, and the trickiest problem you will have to solve is how to keep the ice-cream from dripping all over your clothes.

And while those lazy, sweet, lemonade days of young innocent children running around Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard have disappeared, the pleasure those recollections bring have not. I have been blessed – because we were able to create those moments for our children. Many families in our world do not have that option. War, poverty, famine – those are the realities many moms must deal with. Their hope is for food, adequate shelter and clean water for their children. And as we approach Mother’s Day, I cannot help but think of those moms, who love their children no less, who hope for their children no less and who long for their children to have the necessities they cannot provide. They do not have the luxury of lemonade days. And I know it is a luxury – and I do not take it for granted.

I am grateful for organizations that do more than remember there are those in our world who do not have. Organizations like World Vision, the Eden Project and our church just to mention a few of the many that are about helping those in need. Our own daughter will be spending 8 months working with people in places all over the world who do not have the luxury of lemonade days and I hope that she will be able to bring that to them – a moment in time the children will remember, a time when God broke in and gave them love, compassion, and grace.

I still hope lemonade days for my children. I still want them to come home and feel relaxed, like they haven’t a care in the world, like the biggest issue in their life is choosing between lemonade and iced-tea while they sit by the pool. But I want that for them so that they can be refreshed and refueled to go out and pour their energy into actual problems of the world, so that they have the passion and the drive to do the work that God has created for them to do and in doing so, may they bring a touch of lemonade days to anyone God puts in their paths.