Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.
~JoJo Jensen, Dirt Farmer Wisdom, 2002
If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters.
~Author unknown, attributed to Jim Davis
The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.
~Wilson Mizener
The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bed, and can't get there, is the meanest feeling in the world.
~Edgar Watson Howe
Daylight savings time with children is not an extra hour of sleep. No, it is an extra hour of morning.
~Me
I have not slept well for some time now. My belly, back and bladder wake me many times at night. Couple that with my almost two-year-old who often thinks 1:14 AM and then again 4:35 AM is morning and you can imagine how frustrated and hopeless I can let myself feel on any given morning.
Being awoken at 4:30 AM has too often lead to the complete end of my night's sleep as my body is just too sore to lay down any longer. And so I have prayed many times that the Lord would give me uninterrupted sleep. I tell you the truth: I cannot function without beautiful sleep: "Lord, just let Weston start sleeping every night through the night. Please! Before the baby comes at least! And, Lord, give me a couple nights in a row just to catch up so I can be the mom you want me to be." But on one of those prayerful, sleepless mornings the Lord allowed me to see something new: Sleep had become my idol. I had begun to believe that no amount of God would help me become the mom during the day that I knew I needed to be - only beautiful sleep could do that. God wanted me to trust in HIM and what HE can do more than I trusted in SLEEP.
Upon being shown this, my prayer quickly changed, asking instead that regardless of how much sleep the night brought me, that I would depend wholly and solely upon the only One who could get me through my day to His glory.
I wish I could say that after this epiphany - this lesson that God was trying to teach me - that He then gave me night after night of sleep (since, after all, I had finally learned what God was trying to reveal to me). No. He has not. I now am being asked to live in this new understanding, testing my faith and providing me many opportunities to trust in Him for what I need in a day.
While I do still love sleep, that is not a bad place to be.
4 comments:
Those quotes are oh so true! It is always great to have perspective and a new trust in the Lord. But it is also hard in this last trimester with it's lack of sleep and constant discomfort. Hang in there, sweet baby number 4 is worth every moment of pain.
Jenne-
First of all, congrats on your pregnancy! THat is so exciting.
Last year we missed day light savings and didn't sleep in. THis year we have a newborn...so I totally get your "one more hour of morning" thing.
Thank you for your blog on sleep. It sounds like you are getting less than I am, but it was encouraging none the less.
Hang in there!
Jane
Jenne-great post and great perspective change. I needed that. Jack is a great sleeper. Actually, he's a fabulous sleeper, but I always seem to be tired and in need of a bit more sleep. What a good reminder that I really just need to change my perspective and put my focus on what it should be on.
I love the one about the toaster! I struggle big time when I don't get the sleep I desparately need. I feel your pain.
Whatever God uses to bring us to faith is worth it though. I have something I'm working through and it is the faith I struggle with the most, yet I know He wants me to have it so I can live the life He has planned for me.
Post a Comment