Well here I am in the middle of the night and this comic pretty wells spells it out for you! Whoever came up with this one sure knew what they were talking about! All kinds of ideas, plans and thoughts run through my mind when I can't sleep. Some of my best ideas come at this insane time of day or should I say night! Thoughts on things I can do with Michael, or maybe it's a new recipe I read and I think about what night I want to make that one for supper. Or just crazy stuff about something funny that happened and yes sometimes I think about the worlds problems and try to solve them. Always with the reminder in the back of my mind from Bella, my Taiwanese friend, "Don't think too much" and then the thought I think too much! Ha! The irony of it! Thinking too much about thinking too much! I think right about now I'll break out into Heeey Macarena!
After tossing and turning I finally decided to get up and put some of these thought processes into something. As I type I think my brain is slooowly unwinding. So, does anyone else out there have this same "gifting" of not being able to sleep very well at night? What to do about it? Suggestions, anyone? Please! Let me just say, I've tried it all, sleep evaluation, Melatonin, Ambien, Lunesta, Tylenol PM, natural herbal stuff. What I've found that works best for me is to get up out of bed, ugh and go read. More often than not I turn on some old reruns of I Love Lucy and put the sleep timer on. That usually does the trick. But it's still disrupted sleep and it's not quality sleep. By the time it's time to get up and make sure my son has breakfast and is ready for school, I'm like a zombie. Poor kid what kind of things will he remember about his mother when he's grown and on his own? (I'm digressing)
Wish I could say I get up and pray in the night watches or that I read my Bible when I get up. Confession- I do try to do that. Prayer gets me worked up and then I'm so ratcheted up that I really can't get my mind to go back to sleep or just plain go to sleep in the first place! There's a time and place for prayer- usually throughout my day as things come up, I've got this ongoing conversation with God. And I am making concerted efforts to have a block of time every day to just focus on praying. My brother pointed out to me and I was totally convicted, that Jesus took time away to pray. I can even tell you it's in Mark chapter 1 without even looking it up. So yeah, I should have known that! Sometimes you just need someone who loves you enough to tell you the challenging truth! Thanks Douglas Arnold!
Reading the Bible in the middle of the night? Yes that works! Not just reading it to read it. But really thinking about it. Maybe this sounds like a contradiction but the more I read it and think about what I'm reading the more my mind winds down. Asking questions, digging for answers to understand what I'm reading better. Checking it in several versions, it works! Reading commentary on what I'm questioning. Take for example the other night, (in my read through the Bible on a 2 year plan) I'm reading in Genesis about when Abraham sends his servant off to his homeland to find a wife for his son Issac. His servant no more than finishes praying for God's guidance when out comes Rebekah. Just as he prayed for a sign as to whom would be the right one to be the wife of his boss's son, she offers to give him water and to water his camels too. So my mind is thinking ok, she is Issacs uncle's daughter. Then I'm trying to see if I've got that right and before you know it, I'm asleep. Glasses on, iPad on- glad it turns off after what 30 seconds?. So yeah that works!
So in my normal quote when I remember to put it in here, simply and honestly the bottom line is this, you can't go wrong with searching through the Bible. I've gotten all modern with my Bible reading, using my iPad with a tracker. In my teen years I grew up with a regular hard cover copy of the Bible and later graduated to leather and now I'm all electronic in my Bible reading. However you do it, if your reading it and thinking about it and it's God's Word, it works!
In closing what better way to close than to share one of my favorites to read in the middle of the night. When I really think about it the author of this Psalm must have had sleep issues too. You'll see what I mean. It's Psalm 16. I'm just sharing verses 7-9 but the whole Psalm has some great things to think about when you're trying to fall asleep. Ok enough of my words!
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
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