Orange is the New Mood

As I write this, I am wearing an orange shirt.  It’s a fairly bright orange, actually.  I got it a few years ago at Alco in Miller.  They were going out of business, so they were selling a lot of stuff pretty cheaply.  I got the shirt, and a few others, for five bucks apiece.

It’s a shirt that gets some comment on occasion.  You don’t see a lot of people wearing bright orange shirts.  Well, you might if someone’s going hunting, or working on a construction crew but I do neither, and most people know that.  It’s a shirt that gets me noticed.  You don’t usually fade into the background when you’re wearing a bright orange shirt.

The thing is, it’s one of my favorite shirts, along with a bright yellow shirt that I sometimes wear.  I don’t wear stuff like this all the time, of course.  But wearing bright colors usually puts me in a good mood.  It fires me up.  Why?  I don’t know.  But it does.  And some days, we all need something to put us in a good mood and fire us up.

So, on days like that, I’ll wear a brightly colored shirt.  There are other things that will do that for me, of course.  Listening to good music helps.  Watching or listening to something that gives me a laugh helps.  Exercise helps.  There are lots of things that can help when we’re having a down day.

And of course, one of those things is spending some time with God in prayer.  You probably knew that was coming, but it’s true.  When I’m having a down day, I tell God about it.  And usually, it seems like when I tell God about it, God tells me something in return, something that helps me.

I’m not talking about a voice from beyond, although God can certainly communicate with us that way if God chooses to.  But usually, a thought comes to mind, just kind of out of nowhere, and the thought is something that helps me through my down day and makes it better.  You can believe what you want, but I think that when I get a thought like that, just out of the blue, it’s God who put that thought into my mind.  

We all have down days sometimes.  When you have one, what helps you get out of it?  If you don’t have anything, why not try some of the things I do?  Listen to some good music.  Find something that will give you a laugh.  Get some sort of exercise if you can.  And spend some time with God.  Tell God whatever it is that’s bringing you down.  And if you don’t know what it is, tell God that.  Take some time if you need to.  Maybe God will put a thought into your mind out of the blue.  Or maybe God will communicate with you in some other way--God has lots of ways to talk to us, and each of us hears God differently.  But if we’re honest with God, and if we’re patient, God will usually tell us something in some way to help us through our down days.

And you know?  Try wearing a bright orange shirt, too.  It couldn’t hurt.