Retired baby-boomers: Could this be the reason that you wake-up early?
April 17, 2009
I find myself waking up more in the middle of the night and quite often find myself waking up earlier. This happens despite the fact that as a member of the first class of baby-boomers, I'm retired and have the ability to sleep longer than five a.m.
Can any of you retired baby-boomers identify with these changing sleep patterns?
For me, I think I know the reason. Let me explain:
- I think God wants me to pray more. My role as a father of adult children has changed, but their need for my prayers has not. For example, my son is traveling this morning to San Francisco for work and my daughter and her husband are leaving today for a weekend ministry trip.
- I need to spend more time alone with God. How do I do this? For me this happens in a variety of ways.
- To pry my thoughts loose and get my brain going, I use several devotional tools, including Our Daily Bread from Radio Bible Class. I have both the dead tree and online version.
- Today's devotion is about a bus driver and how he was affected by a group of Christian kids who showed love to him and to each other. It's based on 1 John 4:7-12. This affects me today right where I'm at. I pray for help to reflect back the love I've been shown.
- Another devotion I use is from Pastor Greg Laurie, a guy who I was introduced to at Promise Keepers several years ago. I find myself being able to relate to him and how he thinks. Today, he writes about how we should back away from bragging about how we love God, but, rather point to how much he loves us. Check the Bible verses he uses to support what he writes.
- And I can't forget to thank God for everything he has given me. The list is long.