Yellow- "Being the lightest hue of the spectrum, the color psychology of yellow is uplifting and illuminating, offering hope, happiness, cheerfulness, and fun" (empower-yourselfpsychology.com)

I'm a walking contradiction.  My last post urged you to be a quitter because "some things are worth letting go". But I met two sunny-yellow bar stools last week that don't fit under that "let-them-go" category.

I have a shopping rule that I use frequently with myself and the kids. When you want something, not need but want it, it's a good idea to walk away from it and keep shopping. If you still want it later and have the money for it, then get it.

I waited for days.

Today I returned to Target to purchase the barstools eager to bring them to their forever home. I checked the price to make sure they were still on sale, one of the factors in my deciding to get them. They were still 25% off. Score!

I rolled my buggy up to the front and made friends with a lady behind me in the check-out line.  Eyeing her daffodil yellow toilet and bath rugs I smiled,  "Don't you just love yellow?".  We chatted happily until I noticed my purchase ringing up at regular price. I assured the clerk that they were on sale to which she checked the sales ad.

To make a long story long, the sales ad didn't show the barstools being on sale.  Another nice clerk went back to the chair section and confirmed that they weren't on sale.

I kept my smile and my cool, but I wasn't budging.  I was sure the tag had said they were on sale. I asked permission to go look one more time at the tag I'd seen and also to check out some other barstools. The clerk followed.  I was right. The tag matching my barstools were on sale.
I got my barstools on sale.  The clerks, Target, the sunny lady behind me and I are all still friends.  The end.

Almost.

I was so happy I worked up a spiritual application for you, increasing the value of my sunny-yellow barstool purchase.

Though my "sticking with it" was entirely for something fleshly, a mere thing, I was reminded of the importance of endurance concerning spiritual matters. And as I sit typing perched upon my four-legged ray of sunshine a couple of thoughts come to mind.

Sticking with it

1. The finish line doesn't always mean a win.  There are those who play poorly before crossing the finish line.  If I had made the clerk cry upon a bullying insistence or caused a big disturbance in the check-out line, it wouldn't have been worth the effort.  I find myself being the most enduring when it comes to making sure someone knows I'm right.  If I hurt someone just in effort to prove my validity, I'm not really accomplishing anything of value. Quit a race that's being run godlessly.

2. Make sure you're in the right race in the first place.  Don't destroy yourself on a diet you don't need to be on or stay up until midnight with an aching, hunched back mopping a floor that can wait a day, or a week..... My lately prayer is that God would help me in choosing what I say yes to and in the things I respectfully decline.  I need that help.

3. Be mindful that not all races are a short distance.  I really envied my friend in Junior High.  She ran all of the sprints.  She was finished in seconds.  I had to run the mile and two-mile.  I wasn't fast.  I.  just. had. to keep......going.  It wasn't easy, but that was the race I was meant to run.

4. There are some races you're forced to run.  I've mentioned before that a "football" coach was in charge of our track team one Saturday way back when.  He signed me up (at a whopping hundred pounds) for the shot-put and the four-hundred meter dash (Did I mention I wasn't fast?)  I tried to pretend like I was asleep come time for the first and second call, but I ended up being forced to run a race I didn't want to run.  I'm running some of those kinds of races now too.

More important than anything, for your races and the ones your friends face, pray the great words that come from Colossians 1:11

May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.

And between your racing, may you find a nice yellow barstool like mine to rest on; a place where you find happiness and hope.