Getting a Good Night's Sleep

Sleeping through the night is the holy grail of new parenthood. HumorMD Jr had been faithfully rising every 3-4 hours through the night for his bottle until last week. We had a typical new parent moment when we both awoke around 3AM and panicked. Why you might ask? Well, the baby was still sleeping. We thought that something surely must be wrong. How exhausted must he be to sleep more than 4 hours straight? Was he sick? Did the physicians miss their own child’s illness?

We entertained all of these thoughts and even considered waking him up just to make sure he was OK. Then, we recovered our wits and decided to just be thankful. He was fine, of course, and he awoke about an hour later ready for his bottle. Since then, he now goes anywhere between 5-8 hours straight sleeping. At only ten weeks old, that is amazing, and it again reinforces my belief that he is one awesome baby.

If I can though, I will try to make a serious point here at the end of the week. In the midst of our unnecessary parental anxiety, HumorMD Jr slept soundly. He also sleeps soundly through things like thunderstorms, vacuum cleaners, and ambulances coming through the neighborhood at 5:30 AM (true story). Why does he sleep so well? In a word, faith. HumorMD Jr knows his parents will take care of him. He KNOWS it. In his ten weeks on this earth, we have provided for his every need. He has no reason to doubt us.

If my child can fully rely on a dad that dropped his cell phone on him (again, true story), then how much more should we rely on God. Creator of the universe is a much better qualification than anything I’ve got to offer. Matthew 6 25:34 is a great passage for this. I’ll give you the punchline via verse 26:

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

As this week full of its own troubles ends and a new one looms in a few days, remember that there is someone who is far more capable of handling your problems than you are. If HumorMD Jr can trust his bumbling Dad enough to sleep through the night, then why can’t you trust the all powerful God to handle your problems?