Let's Think and Pray

Minds Matter And So Do Prayers

I know I am not an engineer.  My family and friends will find that statement startling.  Not really, when my engineer son, John, sees me struggling with opening things without reading directions, trying to push random buttons to get my computer to function, or whine because I can’t assemble a new gadget, he looks at me with a blank, cold blue eyed stare. After 48 years, my husband realizes that I am never going to remember to flip things over to check if I am possibly trying to insert a part or a plug in the wrong end of an appliance or gadget. He marvels at my inability to use TV remotes. He has mellowed through the years, and says, “ Bring it here”, or sometimes I am a robot and just walk the item to him and ask him to “fix it”.  My brain works randomly and sometimes the obvious is not obvious.

Ask me to help you find a color palette, decorate your house, or create more room with innovative furniture arrangement, and I’m on that like a speeding mosquito. When my mind wanders, I look at landscapes and think what oil paint colors I would use to depict the beauty.  When I meditate, poetic phrases and Psalms dance through my mind.  When I first meet someone, I look deep within their eyes to see their soul and admire their wrinkles around their eyes that indicate they have laughed a lot. When I read face book requests, my heart hurts, really aches.  I take on prayer request like they are etched in my being. 

I admire my John’s ability to use numbers to define his world.  I envy his organizational skills.  Sometimes it is difficult to remember where he found those genes.  Many times he looks at me with disbelief.  Am I really his mother?

I share this because so many times when I was teaching, I would get students that didn’t like English and would not try or read one assignment.  As I learned more about them, I’d dig to discover if they were the John Baron thinker, or an Adam Baron learner who only wanted to know the big picture and how it related to man and spirit , or a random thinker like me, who was sensitive and needed to know things to help with relationships and perspectives.  I’d watch for doodlers and applaud them because they could multitask.  I’d cheer inside when students would ask me, how I knew something to be true.  Yes, they were the analytic learners.  Even though I no longer teach as a profession, I still try to know a person’s learning style.  I watch for clues in conversation and facial and body expressions.  Watching for these characteristics make living so interesting, learning exciting, and friendships secure. 

            As school begins, teachers will be trying to understand learning styles and adapting to each of their new students.  Pray for them.  Pray safety over our schools. Please pray for each of your children and grandchildren’s friends.  You may be the only one praying for them on a certain day and will make their learning or teaching an easier task.  You and I can make a difference.  Let’s do it.