"SLEEP"

“Exhaustion is a great sleep inducer.” Those are the words my husband heard as I called him shortly after I woke up!!! Now for those who know me you are scratching your head wondering about that statement. Most people know that I “do not” sleep without him lying next to me or at least in the close proximity of me!!! In all of our married life I have never been able to sleep unless he was home!!! However, he’s been on the early shift for the past two weeks, which means rolling out of bed at 2 am, 1:45 am to be exact!! Yikes!!! I know……. that’s early!!! Obviously my body thinks the same thing!!! For the past 2 Sunday nights we have not gotten home until at least 11 pm. Going to bed at 11:30 pm, not going to sleep until midnight and getting up at 2 am is not a good combination!! I know you’re thinking “why haven’t we gotten home before then and why are we laying down in bed at such a ridiculous hour” when we “know” we have to get up so early. It’s all “in the line of duty” so to speak!!! Some things just have to be done and there’s no getting around them. Well, at least not if your last name is “Spencer” and your first name is Jeff or Darlene!!!!! Anyways……when he left for work this morning I went and laid back down in the bed, which is not really uncommon because I’ll usually lay there until he calls to let me know he’s there safely, but I totally knocked out until my alarm went off and then if that wasn’t bad enough, I dozed back off for a few minutes and then phone rang!!!! I was grateful I was half awake! I may not have heard the phone!! Hard as it is to admit, and no I haven’t the foggiest idea why, I was completely and utterly exhausted!!! Enough is enough I guess you could say!! After all, I have now found out that I am human!! Who would’ve thought!!!?? There’s only so much that you can tolerate and then you just have to give it up and give in and if you don’t then your body does it for you!!! Yep…..that’s what happened. However much I “did not” want to sleep without my husband here, my body had other plans!!! I should have known it would catch up with me sooner or later!!!

Sometimes I think that’s the way we are in our lives as a Christian. We fight and fight and we never win. We do everything in our power and we just wear ourselves out and then when it finally comes down to it we collapse due to spiritual exhaustion!! When in all reality if we had just given in and let God do what He does best, we wouldn’t have been so worn out!!!

I’m grateful that God finally “made me to lie down” and get some rest. I feel so much better!!! New energy to face another day!! Now……I’m going to bed at a decent hour!!

“He restores my soul”
Psalm 23:3

"REGRETS"

So many times in life we have regrets. Regrets about things we didn’t do……places we didn’t go…..people we didn’t see or talk to. And when the time comes and the opportunity passes we say things like; I wish I had taken time…..I wish I had gone here or there, etc. I wish, I wish, I wish. We spend our lives “wishing” things and never doing some of the most important things! The truth of the matter is that we “make” time for the things we “want,” but sadly enough many times not for what we “need” to do. Those are the times….the times that the opportunity is gone forever and that’s when we’re left to carry the burden of guilt. Those people that we love should take the highest priority in our lives, yet many times they are left unattended to until we “have” time. We need to realize that we only have ONE chance at this life we live here on earth and so does everyone else. Unfortunately many people use that as an unhealthy advantage to do things they really shouldn’t but they consider it their “once in a lifetime” opportunity. In all reality, there are more important things that in life than those times. When someone you love is hurting or in need, that’s the time to respond….right then….. in that moment. My Grannie used to say: “there’s no time like the present.” We need to realize just how true that statement was. There is no time like the present because what you did yesterday is gone and what you want to do tomorrow may never happen. Take time today to love, laugh and live life to it’s fullest. Jesus did. He loved deeply. In His Word we’re reminded laughter is like medicine to us and He lived His life to the fullest and gave it all for us. Isn’t it time we started living the example He left us? We simply “cannot” turn back the hands of time so regrets only come when we ignore the present need.

Today’s opportunities will never pass this way again so we need to live today like yesterday never happened……………..and the tomorrow we may never see.

You don't even know what tomorrow will bring--
what your life will be! For you are but a vapor
that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
James 4:14