If you read about the snooze alarm, you might have seen it doesn’t make sense to delay action when you’re still half asleep especially if you already made a different decision when you were fully awake.
So let me bring you up to date on some real-life drama.
A health teaching series called “Guard Your Heart” features a small group discussion after each lecture. Each participant shares observations, challenges, successes and failures in their lifestyle change program. At a recent session a group member talked about her challenges with sleep. She would spend her sleep time talking with her teenage daughter about everything in general. Of course, parent-child communication is time well-spent and most moms crave the chance. But Betty was having extra challenge with waking up and getting on with her day. The snooze had become a way to extend her needed sleep time.
Betty made the mistake of sharing this information one evening in our group. I gave her the same lecture about how the snooze is a bad idea. The whole group listened politely and then went on their way.
We each have a conscience that is unique to us and my conscience somehow rarely afflicts me immediately. It brings up questions a few days later that help me evaluate my actions in a different light. What I thought looked good one day may seem suspicious in a few days and totally repulsive after a few more.
I have found that God wants a chance to get our full attention when we communicate with Him. Since God knows what the future holds for each day and He is willing and anxious for me to succeed in today’s activities, I pray each night for Him to wake me at the proper time the next morning. Sure, I know how much time it takes to comb, dress, eat, and brush but He knows what the day’s challenges will actually be. He knows just how much time I need with Him to prepare me for this day’s trauma.
On the sixth morning after giving Betty “what for” about her snooze habit, God woke me up early. I looked at the clock, put my head back down and promptly went back to sleep. When I finally did get out of bed I was ashamed. It’s bad enough to hit the snooze button on a clock, but to disregard God’s wakeup call is just crazy. I had made a fully awake decision to get up when God woke me, and made a sleepy decision later to reject that call and stay under the covers.
That evening at our health session I told the whole group that I was guilty of a personal affront to a Being outside my realm. Does God care about our decisions? Do these decisions effect our daily function? My experience in life makes me say “Yes”. God’s plan is for me to succeed today. He wants to make that happen. He craves my cooperation. Cooperating with His plan continues to be my best goal.
Let’s make a toast to making better decisions while we’re awake, and sticking with them even when we’re half asleep!