“Too Tired to Find Joy”

I recently came across this post from a Christian website and thought I would pass it along with some comments after.

“I'm a stay at home mom to a 1.5 yr old and a 3 yr old. I'm sure you mothers know how it can be. When you're not getting sleep.

It is really doing a number on me. I haven't gotten more then 6 hrs of sleep in a night since September (it's either sickness, teething, etc...and if I even get 6 hrs, that's a good night)...I feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I pray about it and really try to control my attitude, but it is SOO SOO very hard. My husband tries his best at helping.

I get into these moods where I don't want to be around people, everyone annoys me, life just sucks, I serve others out of obligation when I really just want to go home and go to bed. When I get the extreme tiredness...Which is every day, I try not to show it, so I put on a fake face, but I don't want to think this way. I am regularly in the word, I pray, have others praying for me, etc.

How can I find joy despite the extreme lack of sleep? Is there a magic answer? I can't go through every day being so negative. I've got to figure something out because I know this is life and this is how it is as a mother.

"I just feel too fatigued to even TRY to find joy.”

I guess it’s this last sentence that really struck me. How many of us have been “too fatigued to even TRY to find joy”? I know I have. I just can’t imagine not having Christ during times like these. What do the lost do when this happens? How do get through the really tough times without Jesus?

The best part of our walk with Christ has got to be the HOPE that lies within us! “The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven” Colossians 1:5

Sometimes we have look to the Lord to “fill us up!”  Especially when we are like the Jackson Brown song says; “Running on Empty” (I know. I’m dating myself.) In this song Jackson Brown also writes: 

“Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels

Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields”

So for me, I guess it’s always best to realize that this life will soon pass right before our eyes and we will only remember just how fast it really did go. I know. I blinked and my oldest daughter just graduated high school. For some reason I’m not remembering having to get up at all hours of the night, stressing out because I was so tired or fixing all the things that were troublesome. Instead, I smile and remember how beautiful she was as a little girl and now what an incredible (and even more beautiful) young woman she has become! Was she perfect? No. Neither was I. (her Mom can attest to that!).  She’s just one of two of my little girls growing up.

I hope you daily fill yourselves up with the Holy Spirit and run full of Him. 

Enjoy every minute because the good (and the bad) times will rush quickly by.

Blessings,

Pastor Erik