LET'S MAKE LEMONADE

A guide to life that pairs the unlikely combo of scriptural and psychological concepts.

Husband and wife L. Rudy (Sufficient Grace: Surviving Prostate Cancer, 2002) and Lauvenia E. are retired medical professionals, a psychiatrist and a nurse, respectively. Their Christian faith is also the central focus of their lives. Let’s Make Lemonade is a collaborative effort designed to help individuals who rely on their faith to deal with life’s difficulties. Both a guide and a workbook, the book includes lively spiritual narratives and anecdotes from both authors. Rudy shares his experience dealing with lost luggage during his recovery from cancer surgery and how he reframed his initially negative response into overwhelmingly positive regard. Lauvenia, meanwhile, recounts tales of growing up underprivileged in the backwaters of Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies before regaling readers with the details of her battle to overcome lupus. Whatever problem they invoke, the authors clearly illustrate how life’s lemons can be converted into lemonade in myriad ways. The book is chock full of scriptural references, each particularly resonant to the problem at hand. The authors also offer readers many opportunities in the workbook sections to express their own trials and tribulations and a slight guiding hand to prevent readers from becoming too self-pitying or maudlin. The Broomes place a great deal of emphasis on self-awareness, an important component in finding solutions to hard experiences. They list seven barriers to change, seven directions for applying problem-solving options and seven steps to accomplish change. While some readers may appreciate this structured approach to self discovery, others may find its restrictions confining. But the book shows potential to be beneficial as a self-help tool.

A life guide for those willing to invest time and effort.