God Made So Many Colors

My son recently changed his favorite color from green to yellow. I was surprised, no shocked, at this new revelation. This is a little guy who tends to "hang onto things", shall we say. He has loved green since he was 2 and now he's all of 4 (and a 1/2!). Our family has often had to choose food, tennis shoes, and towel colors because of his green obsession. I simply had to know more. The conversation during a recent coloring session went something like this:



"Mom, could you hand me the yellow. It's my new favorite color."



"I thought green was your favorite color," I dutifully reminded him.



"Well, now it's yellow. God made so many colors, Mommy. It's hard to pick!"



He did it again. About once a day one of the little people at my house says something that speaks to me of the wonder of our creative God. That day it was Mr. Yellow. His implied answer to my dutiful reminder was, "Of course God made all they colors too, Mom. Doesn't it say in the Bible that He made EVERYTHING?" Ah, yes, even the colors and their unlimited variations. I love the gratitude summed up in that sentence. Childlike gratitude...I need more of that.



It also brought to mind something God's trying to teach me right now and that is this: I tend to be in a box with my expectation of God sometimes. I'm sure He longs for me to be open to His surprises, but my routinized life squelches that sometimes. I usually just assume He'll work in this or that way, based on how I've seen Him operate in the past.



My lipstick choices are a perfect illustration of this routinization. I always buy the same color. Yes, each time I get a new tube from Target, my Mary Kay-selling friend, or (gasp!) the Lancome counter, I think it is indeed a "new" color. I am so fired up to take it home and add it to my makeup repertoire. Then, just as I put it into the makeup bag, I realize that it's just like the other 25 tubes in there. Pink, pink, pink. ALL of them are some slight variation of pink!



Maybe I need to start thinking more like Mr. Yellow. I want to experience all of God's beautiful colors in my life. Maybe not on my lips, but definitely in my life. Open my eyes, God. Get me out of my box. Surprise me.

Spilled Milk

Does anyone else go completely ballistic over spilled milk? With a toddler and two preschoolers, this happens a lot at my house. I rarely handle it well. I think the saying about "not crying over spilled milk" must have been coined about the children under this roof. I don't exactly know what happens inside me when the I hear the splatter of milk running off onto the floor. But my angry alter-ego almost always makes her appearance in some form. I used to come unglued! Now, I just grit my teeth and start barking directions like General Schwarzkopf. But deep inside, I'm like a volcano ready to explode. I want to keep this emotion in check so that I don't scar my children for life, but it's often very difficult for me!



Here's a verse that I memorized early into my mothering, not because it actually applied (yet), but because it was a part of the passage I was working on. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires." (James 1: 19-20) Now when I memorized that verse, I had 1 adorable little baby. How could I ever get angry with that perfect child? But just like it says in Isaiah, God's Word never returns void, but always accomplishes that for which He sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) My Heavenly Father knew that I needed that verse very soon. I'm waiting for that "accomplishing" part to come to fruition in my life. And, I'm trusting in a perfect, merciful, loving Abba to see that it will.

Just Starting

Well, I've crossed the line. I've become a "blogger". Considering I had no idea what a blog was until the election of 2004 when I kept hearing about how bloggers influenced the outcome of the presidential election, I've come a long way, baby!



I'm a big journaler, and a wannabe author, so I figured, why not take the leap? I've been reading "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat" by John Ortberg, so this is my official leap out of the proverbial (internet) boat! Join me. It'll be fun! (And if nothing else, I'll get a start on my goal of daily writing.)