A gallon of paint that spoke love to my soul.

Over the past three weeks, it seems like everything I read, everything I hear, and everything spoken to me consistently points to the fact that God woos and pursues us with His love.  I find myself questioning it quite a bit in this season of life, but it keeps tenderly stroking my cheek with it's soft message every time I turn around, so I'm working on taking it very much to heart.  That said... I'm the first to admit that I can get a little dramatic about simple things.

 However...

 Not so very long ago, this is what my bedroom looked like.  Not bad at all.  In fact, very soothing and such but the walls were a blue gray that had matched with our previous bedding back when we had a king sized bed (and before we decided to sell it but then never did.. oh ya know, like three years ago).  I kept contemplating painting the walls gray. 

 We had purchased a big, bargain 5 gallon mis-tinted paint bucket and used that for the kids rooms which were in severe need of repainting... (Fleur de Sel by Sherwin Williams) and because we had so much left, I used it in our master bathroom.  You can see where I splashed some on the wall here, but it wasn't going to work for me.  It was really light in our bedroom and I didn't like it.  But I wasn't sure what I wanted... yet.

 And then while flipping through a magazine last week I saw it.  A gorgeous, dark slate gray color. (Stormy Sky by Benjamin Moore.)  But paint is kind of expensive and we'd just completed some creative financing and gotten our credit card all payed off etc, so I wasn't sure this would be Dave Ramsey approved.  Heh heh.

 I didn't pray about it.  Because praying over paint seemed a little frivolous, even to me.  But... my heart was like, "Oh.... I so want to see if we can make this work..."  I waited for my man to get home, tucking the ripped magazine inspiration under the mail pile... waiting for the "right moment" to approach my man.  These things need good timing.  You know what I mean... I know you do.

 After he had had a minute to breathe and greet us and dinner was simmering on the stove, I tentatively showed him my picture.  I was sure he was going to hate it.  I'm not a dark anything kind of girl when it comes to decorating so I knew this would seem out of character but I'm also incredibly decisive and when it's right, I know it.  Firmly.  (Sometimes, unbudgingly so, I'm ashamed to admit.)

 He smiled and said, "Hmmm.  Funny you should ask about this today... I just got a coupon for a free gallon of really good quality paint today."

Um. Really?

And it hit me... I didn't even pray about it, but the coincidence factor can't always be blamed.  Sometimes your heart just KNOWS something was specifically timed just for you.  This was one of those things. 

The next day my man brought home my dark gray paint and instructed me to paint the walls before I completed the (never-ending) trim project.  (Of which I'll never EVER paint trim again so long as I live now that I'm finally done. Ugh. Horrible stuff that.) The adorable and cheery Sunshine print is available in my shop.

 Somewhere along the way, I rearranged all the furniture in here, and it's MUCH better.  My studio space is much more functional thanks to new shelving and some baskets with mis-matched house numbers on them.  And yes... I painted my desk a cream color. (Navajo white by Sherwin Williams)  I would apologize for being this way but really, what's the point? (grin)   I'm beginning to get a few things started for my Fall Etsy (and yes this includes the Christmas tree garlands!!)

So I painted, and I love it, and every time I walk in there, I think, "God loves me so much, He gives me free paint. Yes he does."  And that's what I came here to say.  He pursues us with His love no matter what we may be feeling or what our life circumstances may look like.  He doesn't give up.  He doesn't walk away.  And he cares about the smallest details, right along with the big ones like cancer, job losses, infidelity, broken relationships and finances.  All of it.

Have you ever felt pursued by God's love?