Five-Minute Friday: RED

Today's Five-Minute Friday Prompt:  RED!

"Push the red button before I fall asleep." 

A phrase from one of the kids' Elmo toys.  Something my husband and I heard repeated time after time after time after time ..which then became our little "inside joke."  You know, one of those cute, sing-song little phrases that pops into your mind and spills out of your mouth in a million fun ways.  The kind that eases things and makes you both smile in a stressful moment.  Like in labor.  :) 

The red button...

Red...the color of passion, love, anger, expression.  Intensity.  No half-heartedness about red.  Full-on, full-force, give-it-your-all, let's-do-this red!

Something about the color red both excites and scares me.  I pause to think about the role red has played in my life over the years...and where it is that red shows up in my life these days.

For years, it was associated with the Target motto "fast, fun, and friendly," as my dad, and later as I myself, worked for the company.  Red and khaki was our uniform everyday.  We put on the RED before we walked out the door.  It was also one of my mom's favorite colors growing up.  And according to all the color inventories going on back in the 80s, it was one of our best colors, both of having brown hair and green-brown eyes and being "autumns."

Interesting to me that red is included in the autumn color wheel.  To me, all the other colors of autumn -- certain greens, the oranges, the browns, the mustard yellows -- all speak to me of toning it down, slowing it down, of a smoldering flame, a cooler, softer, quieter time.  And of relief after long summer months (which I tend to think are especially long now living in the south).

But then there is red.  Still burning full-force...still so lit-up and bold in the midst of autumn.  Still alive and well.  Red remains throughout the seasons...seen in the leaves of autumn, the holly berries of winter, the flowering buds of spring, and the full blooms of summer.

I think about the red in my life right now.  The love I am overwhelmed with for my children.  The common passions shared by my husband and myself.  The dreams that burn in my heart for myself, my family, and friends I love.  I am fueled by red.

And I think about the red that saves me from myself...time and time again.  The red that cleanses me daily when I come up short and fail.  The refreshing, cleansing, healing, restoring RED blood that comes from my Savior and is my Salvation.  My Savior's RED...His love, His passion, all that burned in His Heart, pouring out of Him to save the day for me!  His Red enables my red to be!  His Red calls out to my red inside, igniting passion, love, and enabling me to come alive!  He pushes the RED button and awakes me from my sleep.

I'm very thankful for RED.  I'm thankful for the reminder that, just like during my days of working at Target, it's a really good thing to wake up each morning and put on RED!  And I'm grateful that there is always an opportunity waiting for me to "push the RED button before I fall asleep."