Lights Out: Sleep Granted

Have you ever noticed that you're the worst version of yourself when you're sleep deprived? I speak words more sharply, make decisions less rationally, feel emotions more tumultously, and to be honest, am less pleasant to be around.

 Mothers of young children direly need the physical, mental, and emotional well-being that sleep provides, and ironically, at this time -- especially during the early infant stage -- we notoriously lack sustained sleep. (When you think that four consecutive hours constitutes a "good night," you know that your perception is off.)

The result? Less patience. More tears. Incoherent sentences. (Just this past weekend while at a picnic with neighbors I inserted the word "chicken" into a story that had nothing to do with poultry. While I had been talking I had glanced at the grill and my language synapses immediately latched onto the barbequed-goodness, causing me to speak about what I was seeing rather than sustaining my original thought.)

This is why I am so encouraged when I read Psalm 127:2, knowing that "God grants sleep to those he loves." Even though I will wake tonight, groggily make my way to the bassinet, and nurse the baby while the rest of my house is hushed and dark, I can still pull up the covers and rest securely in this.

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