CHANGING COLORS
“Happy is the person who doesn’t listen to the wicked. He doesn’t go where sinners go. He doesn’t do what bad people do. He loves the Lord’s teachings. He thinks about those teachings day and night. He is strong, like a tree planted by a river. It produces fruit in season. Its leaves don’t die. Everything he does will succeed.” (Psalm 1:1-3 International Children’s Bible)
Clyde and his twin sister, Clarissa, went to an elementary school where you had to wear clothes approved by the school, polos and pants of a certain color, and dresses or skirts of a certain color. The twins followed the rules most days, dressing in accordance to school standards. Every once and a while, they would try to wear clothes that did not adhere to the school’s guidelines. On those occasions, the matriarch and/or patriarch in the house would send them right back up to their room to change. Clyde and Clarissa wore the school uniforms all the way through the 8th grade.
When they started the 9th grade, they attended a school where there was no clothing code, no uniform regulations, no need to make sure they wore blue, white, red, or green polos or blouses, and no more beige or blue khaki pants, dresses, or skirts. They could choose their own colors as long as they dressed appropriately and neatly. Clyde’s favorite color was blue, and Clarissa’s favorite color was pink. There were no problems the first year of school, their freshmen year, as it related to their behavior and the quest for academic achievement at a high level. But a not so funny thing happened on there way to their 10th grade year. They noticed how some “popular” youth dressed. Clyde saw how the “bad boys” dressed, and Clarissa saw how the “hottest girls” in school. girls who attracted the eyes of admiring boys, dressed.
Consequently, motivated by a desire to be popular and admired, Clyde changed the color of his clothes to match the colors of the “bad boys.” Clarissa changes the color of her clothes to math the colors and styles of the immodest “hot girls.” The changing of their colors eventually changed the people they associated with in school. Over time, quickly and far less than what one would call gradually, they changed the way they behaved too, demonstrating the unacceptable behaviors of the people whom they now identified as their friends.
Years past and the story becomes even darker for Clyde and Clarissa. I don’t have to go into the details, but neither of the twins is wearing their elementary school favorite colors. Neither of the twins is wearing the colors they opted to wear in search of being “somebody” in high school. Sadly, they are both wearing orange in adults institutions, removed from society. That’s a sad ending to a story about “Changing Colors.” Yet today we see an alarming trend of people who are changing colors, in a general and wide sense of the term, and they have their own sad story to tell.
It is too bad that Clyde and Clarissa did not receive or perhaps did not listen to wise words given by their parents or the authoritative persons in their lives. It is too bad they did not have the words of God above and below hidden in their heart. One more note and I will let you get started on your way this Wednesday morning. The “Clyde” and the “Clarissa” types of our times, include many adults, many who were brought up in the church, but “changed colors.”
I thank God that you are not one of them! But you stay on guard anyway and make sure you avoid the progression that leads from the path of righteousness. Continue to be clothes in righteousness. Also, remember this story. I am sure you can modify it by adding some real names, and share it with some children or adults who need to hear it. I did just that at a mentoring session for primary students yesterday. It’s a “one-size-fits-all” story. I hope it will have a profitable, positive impact. Have a wonderful Wednesday. Be blessed!
“How well God must like you—you don’t walk in the ruts of those blind-as-bats, you don’t stand with the good-for-nothings, you don’t take your seat among the know-it-alls. Instead, you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You’re a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.” (Psalm 1:1-3 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King