Thursday, June 6, 2019

COLORS IN THE CLASSROOM

Is it just me or is this normal day-to-day thing we call life just like a classroom?  It seems to find so many different ways to teach me about many subjects.  Learning can be a wonderful thing--but only if I choose to learn.

One of my sayings that I say on a really regular basis is "It is what it is."  Well ain't that the truth?  Sometimes there's only black or white and no gray, then other times there is a whole crayon box full of different colors.

Let's take a look at yellow for instance.  I told The Grandbaby that yellow is my favorite color.  At least it is for now.  There's all those tones of yellow--the golds, the buttercreams, the pale.  Yellow to me is a very happy color.  It reminds me of sunny days--days when learning is a recognition of the joys that abound in my life.  It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find those joys and learn from them.

Green is a bit like yellow for me, too.  Have you ever seen any prettier color than the green grass after a rain?  It's as if the world has a new vitalization.  Green signals growth to me, not only the growth of the plants and trees but growth of my inner spirit.  After a rain storm in my life, the green sprouts again and helps me to grow in grace, in faith, and in the Lord.

With that said, that brings me to blue.  Well The Grandbaby will tell you without hesitation that blue is her favorite color.  It's the color of PJ Mask's Catboy, her favorite cartoon character.  She has loved the color blue for a long long time.  When I think of blue, though, I think of times that caused tears in my eyes and in this classroom of life.  Tears for losses of loved ones, tears for regrets I can't redo, tears for things I couldn't understand the "why" of, and tears for my own anxiety and fear.  As I ponder the color blue, I realize too that the sky when there are no clouds is also blue.   This leads me to think of blue in two ways--sorrow AND happiness.  I am reminded the most of all the answers and resolutions that came from the tears I shed for various reasons.  You know, it's that Pollyanna thing--you can always find something to be glad about.  Even when you are in the depths of raining despair, one knows that eventually the sun WILL shine again.  And that to me is faith.

Orange, of course, brings to mind family and the favorite color of The Son-In-Law.  His beloved college has orange as one of it's colors.  War Eagle!   That reminds me somehow of answered prayers from way way back.  Prayers for a mate--a right mate--for The Girl, prayers for a family for her, and prayers for her health.  All these have been answered prayers in just the right way because my God knows the right things for us all.   Often those right things are so very unexpected.

Red makes me think of roses and the opportunities we have to stop and smell the flowers.  I get so caught up some days with my anxieties and busyness in the life classroom that I forget the learning.  I got some test results the other day from my doctor.  She has known me many many years and the two of us had a huge long talk about my stress level and how it has to decline for my own physical good.  I told her that my high stress level should come as no surprise to me or to her as we both know me well.  I took away from that lecture that it's important not to sweat the small stuff....and it's all small stuff.  That is said often, I guess, but true.  So I try.  Red can remind me of that.  You know, red also reminds me of the blood Jesus shed on the cross.  For me.  And for you.

There are many colors in the crayon box that man's experimentation has developed and they are beautiful colors in their own right but I will say that one of the least used crayons in the box is the white.  Some folks would rather just leave the coloring page it's original color and not go to the effort of coloring a color that won't show up.  I see white as such a clean, clean look that we should all learn that it is one of the most important.  How nasty looking is a piece of clothing that is stained with all sorts of dirty junk?  How beautiful is that same piece of clothing after it's washed and brought back to it's original whiteness?  White to me signifies everything that is right in the world.  It signifies to me most of all how a heart becomes clean after the washing of Jesus blood.  How, you say?  John 3:16.  It's hard to understand but it is so true....or at least I've learned in my classroom that it's true and I will continue to hold fast to that knowledge.

Put a lot of colors together and you get a rainbow.  A beautiful array of colors come together after the storm  and makes a scene that always makes one smile.  Rainbows have a special place in my family.

I guess this post turned out to be not what I expected when I started typing but maybe it's just what it should be.

Consider.............

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