My family decided to drive up to my in-laws house last weekend to hang out for a few days. We live about two hours from my wife's family, so we normally stay a few days when we drive up. My youngest child is about 10 months old right now and just recently started sleeping through the night. It has been about 3 or 4 weeks since she started sleeping through the night, which has been a great blessing for my wife and I. As most parents already know; when you go somewhere else overnight, you never know how the kids are going to sleep.
We stayed two nights at their home and I felt like I got hit by a semi. The best thing about grandma and grandpa is that they can help us out and give us a break. Trust me when needed as much help as we could get after that first night. The baby went to bed around 830 or 9 that night. We ended up going to bed a little later, but at midnight she woke up screaming. We initially let her cry a little to see if she would put herself back to sleep. She definitely was not going back to sleep, so my wife ended up giving her a bottle. She put her back in the pack-in-play, but the baby still was not happy. I ended up rubbing her back for a few minutes and she finally went to sleep. I want to say throughout the whole sequence we were up for like an hour, but felt like 10 hours. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep that night, because she was rolling around in the pack-in-play, we had a night light in our room which never helps the parents, and i had a hard time falling asleep because it just isn't our bed. Just a long night in general. So needless to say the rest of the weekend was very fun, but I was exhausted by the time we got back home on Sunday.
With three kids we've had many weekends very similar to the last one. Whether it was at my parents house, my wife's family, or our own house it just happens. It takes a few days to get back into the swing of the things. Sometimes it takes more than a few days to get back into our routine, could be days to weeks depending on how crazy life can be. I heard a sermon while I was at my in-laws house, and the pastor was talking about faith. He was in the book of Luke discussing the parable of the blind beggar asking Jesus to heal him (Luke 18: 35-43). Jesus told the beggar that because of his Faith that he was healed and the man got up and started following Him.
As the teacher continued to discuss faith, he mentioned that faith is something that can fluctuate. As he disscussed this fluctuation in faith it really struck a chord. Sometimes our faith is very strong and we feel that close connection with the Lord. It's those times that if we would have called upon the Lord to heal our blindness that we would have been healed because of our faith. There are also times when our faith is not very strong. That doesn't mean Jesus has left us or we are not beleivers, but we don't have the close connection with Him. Most of the time that is on us, we are going through something and we veer away from the Lord and our faith waivers or decreases. It reminds me of that lack of sleep that we experience at times. With that lack of sleep we are almost in a fog. We are just somewhat going through the motions. I go to work because I have to and unfortunatley probably don't perform as well. That lack of sleep can cloud your judgment. Things that normally do not irritate me can very well annoy me because I'm on edge. My wife and I may snap at each other or the kids because of our lack of energy.
With that lack of faith we start asking more questions about the Lord. We start questioning if we hear his voice anymore. We are not seeing the usual fruits of the spirit like we are used to. The Lord is still working and we are not seeing his work as easily or even at all. How do we recover from this lack of faith? The answer is pretty easy honestly. We have to have to get all up in the Lord's business!! Pray and speak to Him more, get in the Word more to find those answers. As you spend time with the Lord, that faith is going to increase and things start to get back into that "normal routine" You start seeing your prayers answered, you start hearing His voice more clearly, your joy comes back, and your peace returns. Life gets back to normal. It's like you got a good night of rest and your energy has returned.
I'm still getting my energy back from the trip last weekend. I am honestly looking forward to relaxing with my family and maybe get a nap in one of these days coming up. Until that rest comes back I will push closer to my family, I will push harder at work to become better. I know that digging in will help me become a stronger individual. I will also push closer to the Lord and look for his activity each day. Whether I have energy or not the Lord deserves my attention. So whether your faith is growing or has declined, push towards Him and not towards other things. As you seek Him more, that faith will start to steadily increase and you will grow in the Lord. So let's get our energy back, I'm tired of this lack of sleep!
God bless!!
-Aaron
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