You may have heard of the saying, "When life throws you a lemon, make lemonade." I love that notion. Let me explain why.

We are creative creatures. No matter who you are, no matter what you are doing - YOU are a creative creature. We have the capability of making something useful out of anything. All we need is the right perspective. That right perspective will, every single time, thrust us into creativity - whereby we not only survive, but thrive!

Today, our world is facing many challenges. You turn on the news and there's bad news all around.  We each have personal challenges of our own to handle - some tittering on the edge of overload. Well, I have good news!  You have made it this far and you'll make it even further.

Give yourself time to think about creative (and legitimate) ways to make the best lemonade out of your lemons! Give yourself TIME! Not time inundated with entertainment so you can relax. But time when your mind has room to have its own thoughts and the creativity in you have the opportunity to flow.

There is the account of the man who discovered the way to structure (in order to explain) DNA.  It came to him in a dream.  I don't think this is strange.  You have experienced something like this before.  How a solution seemingly comes from out of nowhere. 

You can certainly credit God for it! I do. Even so, I credit God for the way that God has created us - wiring us with the ability to come up with creative solutions. Let me explain.

It is a known fact that if a person take the time to ponder a matter extensively, understanding will inevitably come to them - spawning creativity and solutions.  The man who came up with the way to explain DNA in a dream gave himself to much thought concerning that matter.  He was primed for understanding, creativity, and the solution to be spurned.  His is not the only story.  Many in history and many today experience the same.  There is one thing they all have in common.  They gave themselves time to ponder - time for creativity to flow!

Everyone needs someone. In the life we live, we need others to succeed. To be successful, you have to be an influencer of people. There are many ways in which you can influence people. But, where is the line drawn between influence and manipulation? How can you know if you're being an influence or if you're simply manipulating someone to get what you want out of them? One answer is that your motive makes the difference. That is the internal difference.

Don't be frustrated when what has worked in the past no longer works in the present.  Some things are only meant to work for a season, especially when it comes to people.  Why?  Because people and things change. This is true from parenting to business.

So take a step back and look at the big picture. Take your time and assess. Identify what will really work in the present moment and implement it.  Be flexible and keep tap of changes taking place around you. Adapt and succeed!

Our society is full of obsessions. The root of most of it is the obsession with self. Most of the problems in this world can be traced to one root: We are too self-centered. In failure, webeat downourselves. In success, we celebrate ourselves.It is a vicious self-cycle that leads to incredible emptiness and decisions that hurt in the long run though they seem fitting at thepresent moment. When we are too focused on self in failure, we make decisions out of insecurities. When we are too focused on self in success, we make decisions out of our pride. Both scenarios promise to yield disastrous results. The most disastrous is that we never get to see God and his hand at work in our lives.

The truth is, when we stop obsessing withwho we think we are and what we think we can do, we willstart seeing God. Lasting productivity comes when self obsession ceases.

God has made a way for us to have lasting productivity. He has made a way for us to stopobsessing with self in every part ofour life journey- from our progress in personal holiness tosuccess in our vocation. What is that way? Jesus is that way. You may be thinking, "That was expected!"I'm glad you expected that to come, but now let me show you how real and ingenious this idea of Godis.

The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the followers of Jesus in Rome this concerning living out of our own self:

"It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight.Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?"

Paul stated a real dilemma in Romans 7:21-24 (Message Translation). So what's the answer? He continues through to Romans 8:1.

"The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved."

He continues and shows us what stopping obsession with self looks like in Romans 8:5-8.

"Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them - living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored."

Are you getting all of this? It's time to stop ignoring God. It's time to trust God's action in our lives rather than trusting in our self-strength and self-initiative! God brought Jesus on the scene and through him brought us into relationship with himself, which we did not earn and cannot earn. So that now, in our union with God, it's still not about what we can or cannot do. We simply need to get in on what God is doing in us and around us. We do that and everything will fall into place. Life becomes free, liberating, and fulfilling in a way that nothing in this world can give. I will close with this last piece of Paul's letter in Romans 8:12-14.

"So don't you see that we don't owe this do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!"

So what are we waiting for? Obsessing with ourselves will only hold us back. It does more harm than good when we move out of our own strength when God is clearly up to something in us. So go! And go with God.