We have always had great sleepers in our house. Part of this is thanks to a course called Growing Kids God’s Way (also now marketed as BabyWise), which helped us help Ashley get into a great sleep pattern by about two months old. With our younger three, their sleep pattern in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was carried over to their home life once they were discharged from the hospital. People look at us and think that we must never get any sleep, and they are absolutely wrong about that…
…until just recently.
Ashley, who turned four a couple of weeks ago, recently went from wearing a pull-up diaper at night to having full middle-of-the-night potty privileges. Certainly that has been a great steppingstone, but it introduced an all-new phenomenon into our lives: the kid who can walk into our bedroom in the middle of the night and rouse us from sleep to ask us about anything. The topics are unlimited, and have included…
- “I need some water”
- “I can’t find my night-night” (her name for the blanket she sleeps with)
- “I just saw a bug”
- My personal favorite: “Can bears jump?” (try figuring that one out while in a sleep-induced stupor)
The truth is: Ashley and our other kids are all waking up to the world. They are seeing things, experiencing things, and repeating things (oops) that up until now made no sense to them. Because of this, we as parents have greater responsibility, but also the opportunity for a greater relationship, more teachable moments, and the kind of bond that we dreamed about when we asked God for kids.
That reality of ‘waking up to the world’ is also what’s supposed to be happening in my spiritual life as well. In my walk with the Lord, I’m supposed to be like a child–a growing child who is in the process of listening, understanding, learning to talk, learning to walk, resting in Him, and slowly ‘getting it’!
From Colossians 2:2,3, it goes something like this: My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
This summer is supposed to be a great chance for you to slow down a little bit, to enjoy some great family time and some rest and some re-energization and some waking up! We have a great leadership and congregation here, and a couple of staff positions soon to be filled by some very sharp people who love the Lord very much. Enjoy some rest, but remember that in September every member of Hill-n-Dale needs to wake up and GET READY TO RUN!!!
I’m glad to be on this kind of journey with you!
In Christ,
Phil
