Me and my four-year old went for a walk the other day and we were just shooting the breeze like any father and son might do.  Talking about rabbits and frogs and what we might do.  When out of the blue he asks me, “dad why is mom so grouchy when she gets home?”  I was kind of taken aback for a moment and didn’t know what so say, so I said, “well that’s a good question.  Let’s sit down here and talk about it.”  I knew trying to explain this to a four-year old was going to be difficult, so I had to come up with something good.

I thought for a few moments and then said, “You know that picture book with all the big trucks in it?”  He said, “ya I know it.”  I said, “In that book there is a gas truck right.”  He said, “Yep.”  I said, “What does the gas truck do?”  He thought for a minute and said, “Well it drives around and fills people’s gas tanks when they get empty.”  I said, “That’s right, and when the truck is empty what does it do?”  He said “well, it goes home to get filled back up again so it can go fill more tanks.”  I said “exactly right.  You see son, your mom is a teacher and she is very much like that gas truck.  She goes around every day and fills people up with love.  She helps them learn things, and makes them feel important, and just makes sure that they know that somebody cares about them.  But when the end of the day comes her tank is getting pretty empty and so what does she do.  She acts just like that gas truck and goes home to get filled back up with love.”  I asked him, “Who do you think are the lucky people who get to fill her back up?”  He thought for a minute and said, “Well I guess the only people who are at home and that would be me and you.”  I said, “You are exactly right.  Sometimes we have to fill someone up with love before they have enough to give us some back.”