Lemons or Limes? - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - March 21
Lemons or Limes?
By Tiffany Thibault
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. - Psalm 103:2-5
I was born a blonde. Over the years, as my natural hair darkened, I kept it blonde with hair dye. When I was younger, I joked about my forgetfulness, blaming it on being blonde (sorry, other blondes!) When I turned thirty, then forty, I blamed my forgetfulness on my age. Regardless of what I blamed it on, it didn’t change the fact that I forget things often in the busyness of my days.
It happened once again this past spring. I was at Costco with my daughter and we saw some dwarf citrus trees. I had the perfect pot waiting for one, so I bought the one with the tiniest white flower buds, lugged it home and planted it, throwing away the information tag that came with the tree. I enjoyed watching the flowers turn into tiny little fruit balls, and over the summer, I loved seeing the green fruit growing larger. Somewhere over the months I forgot what type of tree I had planted. I thought it was a lime tree, but my daughter was convinced it was a lemon.
One day I was making some guacamole and went out to my patio and picked two perfect “limes” from my tree. I sliced them in half and squeezed the juice into the bowl. It was tart and perfect! My daughter became annoyed that I had harvested some fruit and said to me, “Mom those are lemons, you just have to wait and trust me. I remember what kind we bought!”
I decided to wait and see who was right. Days and weeks passed. Those small perfect round limes, well they began to grow larger, stretch into a different shape, and are now turning yellow. It is definitely a lemon tree. My daughter’s memory is correct. We are now currently waiting to harvest about eleven lemons. I know I will never forget what type of tree this is in the years to come because I have had personal experience in seeing it grow and change.
The Psalmist in our verse, is telling his soul to Bless the Lord, and to not forget the amazing things that God has done for him. Why? Because in our human brokenness, and our life of busyness, we so quickly forget who the LORD is, and what amazing things He has done in our life already. We forget that He has forgiven us, healed us, redeemed us, crowned us! I forgot what type of tree I had, but because I now SEE the truth, I will never forget.
So how do we move from reading these words in the Bible, to never forgetting the goodness of God? Well we have the information in front of us (the Bible) to remind us, but we have to purposefully move the words from the pages to our soul, before we can own them, before we can truly believe them. We do that by speaking its truth so often that we begin to believe it, and when that happens, we can then live it. Write it down, listen to it, read it out loud, fill your space with God’s word. The more we hear it, the more bits of it will sink deep into our soul. Remind yourselves and do it often of what things God has already done in our soul and life. When we remind ourselves of the truth, we can never forget.
As my daughter and I await the lemons fully ripening, we are dreaming of lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, and sweet lemonade. All these thoughts solidify in my tired brain EXACTLY what type of fruit it is and I know I will NEVER forget this fact ever.
As you wait for God to work in your circumstances, remind yourself of His work in the past and await with excitement, His continued work in your life. He is worthy of your praise today and tomorrow. He is worthy of your remembering His work in your past. He is worthy of your trusting Him for how He will most definitely work in your days to come. Bless Him, and don’t ever forget Him. The work He is doing will indeed be a sweet fruit in your life.
Tiffany Thibault enjoys living life with her husband, two daughters and one very large dog in San Diego. She not only homeschools her girls, but she also loves to write about Jesus and speak about Him to groups of women. She loves long walks, coffee and anything chocolate.
Related Resource: Instead of Doing More This Summer, Maybe You Need to Do Less
If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.
Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
