God gave us empty brains…….

My son is an easily discouraged little boy. I think that this is a trait of his that is partially a part of his personality but mostly a trait that shines because of my impatience. I am an impatient and crabby person, and I’m almost ALWAYS in a hurry. These traits of mine reflect how I deal with Sandis. He wants to hurry up and finish whatever it is that he is doing so I don’t blow my top and get angry with him. When things don’t go like he wants, and he realizes he may be falling behind, he freaks out. He cries. He loses all ability to even attempt to keep trying because he gets sooo very upset.

On my end, I’ve definitely had to work on my patience level, my crabbiness level (okay angry mom level), and I’ve had to wake up earlier and stay up a little later to give myself a little extra time. On Sandis’s end, as we’ve tried to undo what I instilled in the first few years of his life, things aren’t as cut and dry and easy to correct. We are dealing with a six year old’s emotions, most of which he doesn’t understand very well, much less Bob and I! Bob is a very patient man. He lends me patience from his vast well of patience, just in case I run dry. He is also very patient with Sandis. He has had a few talks with Sandis, and so have I.

Sandis tells us, when he is upset and can’t think straight, that his mind is empty, and he doesn’t know things. He says this in such a sad way that it is enough to break your heart. Bob one day told him: “Sandis, that is how your mind is supposed to be! God makes everyone with empty brains so that they have lots of room to learn all that they will need to learn as they grow up!” (This probably isn’t verbatim, but you get the gist of this.)

I think that Sandis took this seed into his heart and nurtured it to help bolster whatever it was in his soul that felt inadequate. The other day we all had dinner with my Grandma. We had lasagna and salad, and MAN all that food looked really really really good, and I was PSYCHED that it was a weekday and I wasn’t cooking! We asked Sandis to say the prayer before dinner, because he does it at home and he does such a good job. So this is the prayer (not verbatim, again, but the gist of it):

“We thank you God for Grandma, and for this food, and for this lasagna, and for Mommy, I mean Grandma for making all this really good food. And we thank you God for giving us empty brains…..”

Silence. One of the girls (my cousin) snickered. I burst out in a huge smile. I didn’t want to laugh, but I almost HAD to, it was so unexpected and hilarious!

Grandma interjected quickly, “What a wonderful prayer young man, and you are right, God did give everyone empty brains, so they have plenty of room to learn all they need to!”

Sandis had a huge smile on his face, almost looked sheepish. We finished the prayer with an “Amen.” And we all dug in.

So just remember that, if you are learning something new and it is difficult, that spot in your mind that is supposed to hold the “how to” for whatever it is you are learning, is still empty. But God left it empty just for you to learn “how to”.