Investment advisor John Shubert compares making wise investment decisions to his wife’s paintings. He says she starts with an image of the end result she wants to create. It might be a photograph or an image in her mind with just the right lighting and composition. She often makes a sketch of what she wants to create. Then before beginning her work, she pretreats her canvas and selects the paints she wants to use from her palette, layering them in one at a time. Shubert says it doesn’t always turn out the way she intends, but the vast majority of her paintings turn out quite beautifully. They aren’t a random outcome but rather are the result of a comprehensive and systematic approach his wife takes to creating her masterpieces.
You could say each of us starts each day with a blank canvas, ready for us to paint with whatever colors we’re given. For sure, we could close our eyes and toss random bits of paint on the canvas. Or we could just wait for our circumstances and others to paint our canvas for us. Que será, será, whatever will be will be.
But a more promising approach would be to start each day with a plan to succeed regardless of what comes our way. Imagine your day in your mind as you wish to see it. Imagine you responding according to what is most important to you. See yourself living as the “more than a conqueror” God created you to be.
You can pretreat our daily canvas by beginning with asking God to fill you with his Spirit, inviting him to actually interrupt and redirect your agenda according to his purpose. One of the keys to a God-led day is being flexible to observe and respond to the opportunities he wants to give to you.
Starting each day by focusing on scripture is another way of “preparing your canvas.” I’m not talking about reading a brief passage so you can quickly check it off your list, but spending some quiet time reflecting on what it means to you and how you should respond to it today.
Frustrating situations and interruptions will occur during the most days. What techniques have you learned to color these? Many of our palettes include too much anger, bitterness, impatience, regret, and disdain. We’re better off to choose the colors of patience, kindness, goodness, thankfulness, celebration, and humility. Only with disciplined experience will we be able to apply these colors skillfully to our canvas. Throughout the day we need to make a number of corrections to what we’ve painted. Some days, we need to set the project aside and come back with a fresh approach later.
I often find it rewarding at the end of a day to look back and reflect on what I’ve created. If I’m disappointed in how the day went, I find encouragement in taking stock in realizing that I did my best (if I did), and in knowing that tomorrow is a new day, complete with new opportunities.
Maybe each day won’t be a masterpiece. Perhaps many will be marked by choosing the wrong colors and techniques or we find that life tosses its own paint onto our canvas. But don’t forget – it is your canvas to paint. How you choose to paint it is an investment that will either pay rich rewards – or be squandered.
Life is like a painting. And it will be as beautiful as you determine to see it.
This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24