BJ around the age we started calling him "Beejie." He's so darn cute, I think you can see why!

When we bought the house we live in, we did not like the outside very much. I think we may have shared that. We love the inside, but the outside was not what we would have chosen.

Deanna has always wanted brick. This house is brick. But it is not red brick, it is what they call "blond brick." Kind of a dirty white, to me. We didn't mind that so much. What we really didn't like was the shutters and doors painted 1950's olive drab. Ooohhh! It's really unfortunate!

Most of our friends were too kind to say anything out loud. I usually let them off the hook by addressing it first. Interestingly, some then felt the freedom to tell us what else they didn't like about it.

We really like our home. We love the inside!

Deanna is on fall break and decided it was time to eliminate the ugly color on the exterior of our home. She picked up color chips and we labored over what colors to use. We eliminated several just in discussion. Then we narrowed it down to two or three possibilities.

Yesterday morning, we went outside in the morning light and decided on one scheme. Deanna went and picked up the paint and began the process of transforming the exterior doors and shutters.

She is doing a great job! The house already looks warmer! She told me last night she found baby blue paint under the olive drab.

Oh my.

I'm glad we agreed on other colors!

We've made some poor choices in the past. We went off the color chips and tried to match two colors that were not on the same paint palette. It was a disaster...one neighbor let us know about it. We were very careful this time.

Deanna pointed out that a couple of our shutters that get the brunt of the weather were not in great shape. Upon looking, one can see that they have begun to rot a bit near the bottom. The fresh coats of paint will prolong the inevitable, but ultimately we will have to replace them.

That will be a task for another day. We won't be able to replace just one or two, we will have to replace them all. These shutters are from the 60's or 70's.

Paint can cover a multitude of mistakes.

The Old Testament (and New) speaks of this. In Ezekiel 13, there is discussion of building flimsy walls and covering them with "whitewash." In essence, taking something of shoddy construction and making it look good by covering it over with a coat of paint.

It will not last. It will not stand the test of time and weather. It will fail sooner rather than later.

Many of us see this in our walks with Christ. We cover over our failures with "Christianese," and rather than truly seeking redemption, we continue to live in ways that are dangerous. We do not truly surrender certain areas of our lives. We hang on to "pet sin" areas. These are highly destructive, but we justify their presence in our lives as something that only we deal with and say they are not hurting anyone else.

It is only a matter of time. Just like my shutters, we are only delaying the inevitable. The difference is, my shutters are non-functional. They are only there for aesthetics. These areas of our lives are not about looking good. We actually need to be completely surrendered to the Lord.

If we don't yield this private sin to Him, significant trouble lies ahead.

dad