Dear Ones,
Hope you had a good night of sleep. Al and the men had a good time at the lake yesterday and I was able to shop with a friend and have her for lunch and prayer and sharing. Today Al preaches next door and tonight we get to hear from the ones that went on a mission trip and are now back. No A.C. yet! Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
I’m sure we have all had times that we waken in the night and can’t get back to sleep again. We just lay in bed thinking of all the things we have on our agenda for the next day and wonder how we will get it all accomplished. As we look at the clock slowly ticking away, we think of even more things that need our attention, and sleep eludes us.

When my brother came to visit recently, he had a page torn out of a devotional from the Upper Room that he wanted me to read and it had to do with sleep. As it says in Proverbs 3:24, “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” That sounds heavenly, especially if we are laying there in the night, wide awake and want sweet sleep!  Dolores Kight writes her own experience of a discussion at church where she shared her battle with sleep. A retired school psychologist responded by saying when we struggle with sleep it is good to look back on what we did in a day, not think of all our plans for the next day. In reflecting on our day, we think of how we spent our day and what we accomplished and the interactions we had and we thank the Lord for it. Even if something negative happened we can still thank the Lord for the good he can work out of it and what we learned from it. The example was given in Genesis 1 of creation and how God spoke “It was good!” at the end of each day during the 6 days of creation. So, Delores said she has used this process when she falls asleep and continues to be blessed with sweet sleep. She also has a good frame of mind to start the next day for if we are thankful for the day before, we can look with anticipation to the new day before us.

There are many scriptures about sleep and you may like Prov. 3:24 or another one. We can enjoy sweet rest and sleep as we sink down into our pillow and know that the Lord is tucking us in with His presence. No need to think on the stresses of tomorrow but know that He will be with us just as He was today.

Challenge for today: Memorize a scripture on sleep, and if you wake in the night, reflect on the day you had and tell the Lord, “It was good.”
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy