You will sleep like a baby, safe and sound – your rest will be sweet and secure. Proverbs 3:24
Getting up in the morning re-charged, ready for the day, and excited OR getting up in the morning tired, brain-fogged, and grumpy.
Which describes your sleep this week? How many times during the week do you wake up at 3 a.m. and can’t get back to sleep? What would you pay to get a good night’s sleep? Why is sleep so important? Isn’t it better to stay up late, arise early, and only suffer a few hours of non-productivity while sleeping?
Let’s pretend that you are a grandparent (for actual grandparents this will be easy; for those less fortunate, prayers for your future):
One daughter calls, “Hey, I have to go to work. Can you watch the four grandkids for a couple of hours?”
Sure!
Ten minutes later another daughter calls, “Hey, I’m called into work. Can you watch the two grandkids for a couple of hours?”
Sure!
Six grandkids for a couple of hours. When they leave – what a mess – but you’re a grandparent and you can’t say “no.”
When the grandkids leave, you pick up things – scattered toys, mismatched game pieces, plates with cold chicken nuggets, empty sippy cups, and finding another unmatched sock to add to the grandkids’ “left stuff basket” in the back hallway.
The cleanup goes well, the dust-buster helps, and the new carpet cleaner for spilled grape juice works a miracle.
Afterward, you sit in your recliner and relax!
Your brain on sleep…
Your brain re-organizes clutter during sleep. It picks up differing bits of memory and decides which to place on the shelf and what to throw in the garbage. It pulls out the “neuron Dyson” and cleans up debris.
With the room cleaned, it slows your heart and breathing, lowers blood pressure, and leans back in its favorite recliner to watch scenes from the day, hitting delete on those not worthy to remember.
Then it rests – deep rest.
In the morning you wake up refreshed.
Grandchildren are great – and sleep, too, is great!
The Bible talks about good sleep and bad sleep. The unrighteous don’t sleep and are often haunted by nightmares. Those who live in the peace of God’s presence, during sleep, can receive fresh revelation from God through dreams and visions.
For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds. Job 33:14-15
Two types of sleep – the 3 a.m. terror or the awake in the morning refreshed? How did you sleep this week?
Interruptions will continue to keep you awake with this topic of sleep.
Next topic: Why God Wakes You Up!