As a little child . . .

Benjamin and I were coming out of the store yesterday, and an elderly, mentally handicap employee came over to talk to us in the parking lot. He was saying a sentence to me over and over, and I couldn't understand what it was. Finally I heard him say, "I am doing a great job." I said back "Yes you are." He repeated the same sentence to me again and again until I finally repeated it back to him with "Yes, you are doing a great job." Our next exchange went like this. "See there are no carts in the parking lot." I replied "There are no carts in the parking lot. You are doing a great job." He said. "I am a good worker." And I affirmed his statement repeating the same words back to him. I was holding Benjamin at the time, as I was about to lift him into his carseat when the man approached us, and so I could see his face clearly during the conversation. Benjamin had such an inquisitive look on his face during the exchanges, especially when the man just kept repeating the same sentence until I figured out the response he needed. His facial expression did not change after I set him in his carseat. I wondered what he was thinking and if he would ask me about the man. I wondered if he would ask me about the conversation with him because it was very obvious there was something different about it. The next thing that he said to me brought my thought process to a grinding halt. He said "Mom, that man is really smart. He can get all those carts together." I looked at him as my heart filled with the warm tingles of the Spirit and said "Yes, he is really smart." I just wonder how often I look at what I can't do or others can't do instead of seeing how "smart" we all are in our own individual and unique ways. It was obvious to me that this man was very limited by the things he couldn't do, but to Benjamin he was a genius for what he could do. A great lesson learned by mom.