Shaken To Perfection!

The Perfect Color of Paint
A true story by Tejae
August 27, 2005


All the rooms pictured in this blog were painted using the mismatched paint.

I was going through a very difficult divorce at the time this event happened and it is funny how such trying times can make us so strong and we can learn lessons from even the most frustrating of situations.

I bought some mismatched paint from the local K-Mart that was just off white and was marked down to $5 a gallon. When I bought it, I asked the clerk if it would be possible to retint the mixed paint and make it to be a color that I wanted. They said that would be possible so I bought about 15 cans of the mismatched paint.

Our home had always been white since my ex-husband was worried about resale value. During the divorce, I felt that our children felt powerless and felt that they had no say in what was happening, so, I told them to pick any color they wanted and I would paint their rooms however they chose. I wanted to give them a feeling of control in an awful situation.


My oldest child chose lime green to paint her room. I thought it would look awful but being true to my word, I set off to the store with the mismatched paint. When I arrived, there was an older experienced worker that knew about colors and he was able within a few tries to get the paint exactly the right color. I was amazed that he could get so close by adding just a bit of this color and a bit of that color and shaking vigorously.

So, after I finished her room,
my next oldest decided she wanted Winnie-the-Pooh with clouds on the top and the mustard pooh color on the bottom. So, off to the store I go with two more gallons of paint. I get there and once again, the experienced worker was there. He quickly made the calculations and put the paint tint in the cans and shook them up. Out came a perfect match. I was beginning to think I had really gotten a great deal!

The next paint I needed tinted was a chocolate milk color. I went to the store thinking I would be done in a few min. This time, there was a younger worker that wasn’t so experienced but there was another worker visiting and he helped guide the worker after several unsuccessful attempts how to “fix” what he had done to the paint by adding the opposite color on the color wheel. It took about an hour to mix the gallon of paint. I thought maybe the paint wasn’t such a “great” deal having to take so long to get it mixed.

I waited several months before I could get to the next room. My life was going crazy with court dates and evaluations, and mediators etc. I decided on a color for my family room. This would be the room we would spend much time in and I wanted it to be a warm color. I took in several gallons of paint to be mixed. This time, there was a girl who had no idea what to do other than follow the exact recipe in the mixing book and turn on the mixer. I gave her the colors that I wanted the paint mixed and off we went. We would add a drop of this color and a drop of that and then put it into the mixer. Out it would come after having been agitated and we would anxiously open the can to see what color we had created. It took hours and we finally got close to what I thought I wanted.

I took the paint home and started putting it on the wall. I painted a small section and then let it dry. Even thought I thought at the store that it was what I wanted, after taking it home and “trying it on”. I realized, after all that work, it wasn’t exactly how I wanted it to be. So, off to the store I went with my paint. We added a bit more color, and, home I went. I put a bit on the wall.

Once it had dried, I realized it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. So off to the store I went to add more color and have the paint shaken to mix it up. After this last time, I put it on the wall and it was perfect. It was the exact color that I wanted.

It was at the store the last time that I realized that my life was like the mismatched paint. I felt discarded and rejected and not worth full price, just like the mismatched paint. Then, like I saw value in the paint, the Lord saw value in me. I take the paint home and ponder on what color I would like it to become. The Lord ponders on me and what I can become.

Then, I take action and go to the store and have a bit of tint and color thrown in. The Lord puts me in situations where a bit of color and tint is added by others around me. Next, the paint gets put into the mixer and shaken vigorously. I get trials that are suited to shake me up and mix up my sedimentary life mixing the colors and experiences together to make me a shade that he wants me.

Then, when the mixing of the paint is done, I take it home and try it on the wall. I let it dry and look at it in different lights of the day and decided if it is exactly what I want. The Lord, lets me out of my trials for awhile to see what shade I have become as a person and what I will do or be in different situations and “lights” and how I will respond to the different lights and experiences.

I decided I didn’t exactly like the shade of the paint, so off I go to the store for more tinting and shaking. The Lord thinks, “I know she could be better, she isn’t quite perfect for what I have in store for her so I will give her more tinting and trials to shake her up to become perfect for what I would like for her. I learned that when mixing paint, if you add black to the paint and you don’t like the color that it becomes, you can add the same amount of white and it erases all the effects of the black.

Just as the paint, if I make a bad choice during my trial and because of that choice darkness and black come into my life, I just need to use the atonement and add the same amount of light or white back in and it erases all effects of the dark or black paint from my soul.

So through the trials we go… being shaken, tinted, shaken, tinted, shaken and tinted until, like the paint for my family room, we are perfect. Sometimes we will have someone that is experienced helping us along the way and the trial (mixing) seems quite easy and we feel we are soaring through it. Other times, we have no one with experience that can help and we are mostly on our own and it takes much longer to go through than we would like but we don’t always get to choose the people around us or the length of our trials.

That paint was mismatched, discounted and unwanted. I felt discounted and unwanted after almost 20 years in an abusive marriage and having gone through a divorce. After being tinted and shaken at least 40 times the paint was perfect for what I needed it for.

Like that paint, I have been shaken many times by the trials of my divorce. But, as I go through each tinting and shaking trial, I come out one more step toward perfect for what the Lord needs me to be for his purpose. I see a value in myself. I know most people would have passed that paint off as unusable. I saw value, I worked at it and spent time with it and coated my home with it. I haven’t had a room in my home that hasn’t gotten complements and someone asking, “Where did you get the paint?” and “What color is this?”, or, “Can I use the same color in my house without offending you?”

Like the paint, I hope that when the Lord is through tinting, mixing, and coating me that people will see the value in what I have gone through and, that as I say, “Its perfect” about my paint, the Lord will be pleased and say “She’s perfect.”