Bedtime Blues

Bedtime has always been a hassle around the Fincher house.  Part of this is due to the fact that, in the beginning, I didn't really have a good understanding of how to train my children.  More recently bedtime has been difficult because my children are fearful.  They are not so much afraid of the the "dark", as what may be lurking in the shadows, just out of sight.  Or even worse, something they imagined, or saw on TV, or read about in a book!

I'll admit, I tend to be quite selfish when it comes to bedtime.  After MANY hours of little people calling me, and needing me, and hanging on me, I just want the little bodies in their beds and the little voices silent for a little while before I take myself to bed!  I have had little sympathy for the fears and "What if's...?"

I was reminded last night, after leaving the girls' room, of a prayer I made when I was just a little older than Adara is now.  I asked the Lord to not let me forget, when I became a parent, what it felt like to be a kid.  And then I remembered how scared I used to be to walk into dark rooms.  I remembered some of the bad dreams I'd had & how hard it was to fall asleep afterwards.  And then I thought, "I'm still no better."  After a nightmare I still roll over & cuddle up just as close as I can get to Shorty. ;)

And I was reminded how little it really takes to soothe my children toward sleep.  Sometimes it's a song, sometimes it's an extra story, or even *gasp* sitting in their room for a few minutes.  Last night I sat in the room with the girls for 10 minutes and they all fell asleep.  So as I've been writing this, it has occurred to me (again!) how much more effort it takes for me to be selfish & lazy...  And how much it hurts my Crew and me! =P  I really have a VERY SLOW learning curve....

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:7-11

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Galatians 5:13-14