How do you teach Faith to a child with Autism? First you have to teach him how to pray, and then you have to believe that YOUR prayers will be heard, and answered.
Case in point:
It's been raining, and raining, and raining.... and on Wednesday GP had had enough. He woke up and was in one of those moods that is reserved for noisy, crowded places. He was upset! Yep, "Good Moring", >growl<,"Don't tell me that!" OOps, no more talking to Mr. Grouchy! The rest of the morning goes in silence, then I invite him to his favorite Japanese restaurant for lunch (If anything has the power to cheer this kid up, it's Sushi!) and he perks up a bit and says,"Sure!"
Off we go to SOHO and no sooner had we been seated than the "problem" was revealed.
First, we go to SOHO's all the time. At least once a week since they opened almost two years ago. He is known by name and he knows everybody's name too. He always has a great time when we go there and the great food is just a bonus. Well, Julian (the owner's college age son) is our server today. He greets GP first, "Gene Paul how are you doing today? Are you getting ready for the Fourth of July?" And GP says "It's raining all Summer long! It's never going to stop! We need to
Stop this rain! The Summer will end if this rain doesn't stop!" And just like that, I found out what was wrong with GP. He was upset about the weather, duh!
What to do about the weather? HMMM... not much we can do, is there?
Once the cat was out of the bag it just went on, and on, and on, and on....you get the picture??? And all the way home he is telling me he must stop the rain. Frustrated and growing ever more upset myself that I had to endure this mood due to no fault of my own, I tell him, "I cannot change the weather, only God can do that. You have to ask God to change that, I cannot fix it." End of story!
Back to silence (It was a LONG day at the Mercado's), any attempt at conversation was blocked with "It's raining, it's never going to stop!" so why bother? The "been there, done that" reasonable person in me says,"Just drop it!" and no more conversations are happening here. You can hear a pin drop in this house. Until it's time for prayers... I tell GP "don't forget your prayers" and he says, "Don't tell me that!" which means I will not be joining in the prayers, he will say them on his own. OK, so I just listen to make sure he is saying his prayers (from a safe distance in the next room). Well here you go:
"Dear Lord, we thank you for the blessings in our lives. We thank you for the health and happiness that you bestow upon us. We thank you for the food the nourishes our body and
the home that shelters us from the snow (yes, we say this prayer even in the Summer!). Dear Lord, we thank you for our pets and ask that you help us be good pet owners so we can can keep our pets happy and healthy." Then he says....
"Dear Lord please help Pepper to have good eyes so she can see better. And Dear Lord, please stop this rain so we can have a sunny day this Summer. Dear Lord, please make it "to" stop raining". AND, then he says a special Lord's prayer for his "extra" request. It's a Catholic "thing"...don't ask, LOL! Anyway, I was so worried I could hardly sleep...
I had after all, told him that God could fix the weather, and sure enough, he took it up with the big guy. OMG! What if God was too busy taking care of the sick and the hungry to hear my son's prayer? How do I teach him to believe in something he cannot see???? Autism is about "seeing". There is no "abstract" in the Autism spectrum! That's why it's so hard to teach them reasoning, duh! Needless to say, this was not good. So what did I do? I prayed! I asked that HE answer my son's prayer... I didn't ask for world peace, I didn't ask for a cure for Autism. I didn't ask that he restore Pepper's eyesight but I did ask for one big "miracle". I asked for HIM to do this one little thing for GP, show him that HE could do it...make the rain go away.
And hold on to your hats...we woke to a glorious SUNNY DAY! What did GP say? "I said the prayers and God fixed the weather!" and what did I say? "I told you!"
I think my sigh was heard around the world! Sometimes you just need a little Faith! Thank you God, for the Sunny Day!
