“SILENCIO, BRUNO!”

My toddler granddaughter has finally reached the age where she will sit and watch an entire movie with me. Last week, we must have watched the new Disney movie called Luca about four times. (Be careful what you wish for!)

I’m one of those people who likes to  find a “God moment” in every movie – even animated movies. Luca did not disappoint. This movie offered  up a very brief,  spiritual wink from God.

Luca is a sea dragon that turns into a real boy once he leaves the water.  He   makes a friend in Alberto, who is also a sea dragon and boy in disguise. Alberto possesses a rather wild and somewhat worldly view of human life. This recklessness is due in part to his father’s abandonment. (Boy, that’s an entire deep message right there!)

The two boys become obsessed with an Italian motor scooter called a Vespa. They decide to build their own scooter with whozits and whatzits and gadgets and gizmos galore. (Disney wink!)

Once their creation is completed, Alberto tries to convince Luca to make a perilous run down a steep incline on their scary looking contraption. Luca balks and says “no thanks, I don’t want to die!”

Alberto responds by telling Luca he has “a Bruno in his head.”  Confused, Luca asks what that is.  Alberto explains that it’s the voice in your head of someone who continually tells you can’t do something.

When Luca says he doesn’t have a “Bruno,” Alberto replies, “everybody has a Bruno, but they might not be named Bruno. The name of the voice in your head doesn’t matter. What matters is you have to stop listening to it.”

Alberto tells Luca, you’ve got to tell the voice, “Silencio, Bruno!” Silencio is the Italian word for “shut up” or “be quiet. Silence!” And you can’t just say the words, you have to say them like you mean them.  “SILENCIO, BRUNO!!!”      

I started thinking about the voices in my head that seem to have followed me from childhood. My voices aren’t named “Bruno,” but rather named after people who judged, berated or verbally abused me on a regular basis. If I am having a hormonal, emotional kind of day, it can seem impossible to silence the internal, mental assaults.

While Alberto had a great suggestion to tell the voices simply to be quiet, I frequently have to refer to Scripture to quiet my “Brunos’.”

 

How about YOU? Do you have “a Bruno in your head” who mentally beats you up — one that tells you you’ll never amount to anything? Maybe it’s a Bruno who says you’ll never be healed, out of debt, reach your goal weight … or a million other defeating mindsets?

Why not start with “SILENCIO, BRUNO!” and then roll right on in to a “GET THEE BEHIND ME SATAN! AND LORD, PLEASE TRANSFORM MY MIND!”

Isn’t it time we stop letting the Brunos’ of the world dictate our moods and start putting all of our hope and trust in Jesus, who tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Blessings in Christ, Kathy K.