It's just paint

A few weeks ago, I spent an evening helping some dear friends to paint a room before they moved in to their house. I did it because I love these friends, not because I love painting. In fact, it's been well over a decade since I had actually done any real painting on wall and that was in my bedroom. I even joked on Facebook that I had done my painting of the decade that night, so nobody needed to expect me to do it again until 2020.

The thing is, I don't like the mess of painting, but I really enjoy looking at colors and planning out what I'd like a room to look like. I think that's a big reason why I haven't painted much in the past few years, because I got the rooms in my house the way I like them (colorwise especially) and I didn't see the need to get all the mess out.

Funny thing about doing something you haven't done in a while. It makes you start thinking about it. I'd say that probably before I left my friends' house that night, I had already begun thinking "what if . . ." thoughts about my own bedroom. The one that has been the same color for about twelve years. The one that really hasn't had much change done to it (except for new bedding) since it became my room all to myself (six years ago).

So I asked another friend of mine who is super-knowledgeable about colors and paint to help me start conceptualizing what I might do to my room. She brought me some paint chips and sent me an article to get me started. And she, along with the friend that I painted with, have been so encouraging that I think I'm moving more toward taking the plunge with the paintbrushes.

Oh, and if the whole thinking stage wasn't enough, the other day, my coworker walks by my desk and said, "What's that box of stuff on the chair in my office that has your name on it?" I had no idea what he was talking about, so I went to investigate. Sure enough, there was a clear, plastic box with (of all things) paintbrushes and other paint tools inside. And there was a label on the outside, made with a trusty label-maker, that said, "RYAN" plain as day!

Do you know where it came from? Two years ago, when Daniel went on his first youth mission trip, they had asked for people to bring any painting tools they had. I don't think Daniel even knew they were on the bus, much less used them that week, and I thought they'd gotten left behind when they got home. But no . . . there they were, on the chair. Somehow it had gotten unearthed when someone was moving offices. And just when I was starting to think about painting a room in my house.

So, now I have one less excuse and am getting more excited about the possibility of making a change in my room. I could still decide to pay someone else to do the dirty work for me, but at the end of the day, it's just paint.

Stay tuned for possible updates on this project . . .