Clean Brushes

 "Arrggghh!! The yellow is broken!!!"  

I looked up and crossed the room to where the kindergartner was now standing  at his table with a set of paints and his paper laid out in front of him.  His chubby little fingers grasped the brush tightly in his fist and he repeatedly kept putting the brush back into his water cup and then trying to get yellow paint on his brush.  But the cup of water was now a dark reddish brown and he was simply transferring the pigment from the cup to his paint tray.  

"Hmmmm.  What do you think is the problem here?" I asked as I knelt by his side.

"My water is all brown so I can't fix my paints to make a fierce dinosaur. Fierce dinosaurs have yellow eyes."

"Should we go get clean water?"  I put my hand out and he took it and I led him to the sink.  We refilled his cup with clean water and put the brush under the tap.  Even with fresh water, at first the water coming out was a dark brown but it gradually became lighter until only clear water could be seen.

He returned to the table, we blotted his tray dry and he went back to work on his fierce dinosaur. 

He needed to keep his brush clean in order to create his most beautiful artwork.

We need to keep our brushes clean, and to maintain them often, in order to create our best relationships.  

"A lasting relationship is one that repairs often".  While this is true of all relationships, Dr John Gottman continues with this specific encouragement for couples. "Happy couples are not very different from unhappy couples; they are simply able to make repairs to their relationship easier and faster so they can get back to the joy of being together."

Sister Neill F. Marriott gave this wise and true counsel:

"We want to be encircled in the arms of our Heavenly Father’s love and guidance, and so we put His will first and with a broken heart plead that Christ will pour streams of cleansing water into our pitcher. At first it may come drop by drop, but as we seek, ask, and obey, it will come abundantly. This living water will begin to fill us, and brimming with His love, we can tip the pitcher of our soul and share its contents with others who thirst for healing, hope, and belonging. As our inner pitcher becomes clean, our earthly relationships begin to heal."

What a beautiful promise!! 

Isaiah 30:26 echoes this promise,

"the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."

We can heal but we need to increase our relationship skills, and let the Atonement of Jesus Christ fulfill its very purpose.  Can you feel the cool, cleansing water rinse away the stains of anger, hurt and pride? Or at least hope and long for it?  Catch those first few drops and begin to see the divine good of others and ourselves come shining through.  

And get back to the work of painting fierce dinosaurs.