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“How Dark is Dark?”

Darkness!

How dark is dark?  I mean really what makes darkness?  How much light does it take to see through the darkness?  Are there different kinds of darkness or different levels of darkness?  The reality is there are different kinds and levels of darkness.  Is darkness good or bad?  I believe the answer is that it can be good or bad.  Someone who lives in a city doesn’t even really know what true darkness is because there are always lights somewhere.  They can put blackout curtains on which helps.  But there is another kind of darkness that is more visible in the city.

Darkness is relative

I wear a Fitbit.  For those who may not know, a Fitbit is a kind of watch.  It not only tells the time but also keeps track of your heart rate and sleep patterns along with a few other things.  You can’t see the time without the light coming on.  So if you need to know what time it is in the night you just turn your arm toward you and most of the time it automatically comes on.  Or if I need to see in the pitch black I push a little button on the side to turn on the light.

At night our eyes get used to the darkness.  If you live in the country where it gets really dark you know what I am talking about.  You get up in the night to use the bathroom surprisingly you can see fairly well.

When I know…

Sometimes when I know some object, like the vacuum cleaner, has been left out in my room I will want a little light to make sure I don’t run into it.  My Fitbit doesn’t have a really bright light.  But when you are in a really dark place if I push the button the little light makes my path plainer.  I am astonished how much that little bit of light actually helps.  It appears to be so bright.

At times I have had to go from my darkroom to go check on something in the other room.  At that point, I had to have a bigger light so I have turned on a lamp.  Once I turn the lamp off and head back into the other room where it is really dark I noticed something.  When I have had more light the darkness seems even darker and the little light from my Fitbit seems so dim.  The light from my Fitbit no longer can help me through the darkness.

Darkness is good?

So Darkness is good isn’t it?  When it comes to your room at night yes darkness is good.  We can’t get proper rest if we don’t have a dark room.  God made darkness for a reason.  And when we put light into the darkness that He has created it messes with our bodies.  It affects our melatonin, serotonin, and our circadian rhythm and many other areas.

We have been bombarded with light everywhere to mess up our bodies.  We need to take control and make changes if we are going to help our bodies stay well.  Good sleep is foundational when it comes to being healthy.  Figure out a way to keep your room and the rooms of your family dark.

Darkness is bad?

How can darkness be good and bad?  Darkness is good for sleeping well to improve our health.  But evil often happens in the cover of darkness.  Why do you think there are so many lights in a city?  I don’t know what all the reasons are for having all the lights in the city.  But my guess would be that partly it has to do with trying to keep down the crime.  Most criminals want to do their mischief in the cover of darkness.  And those in authority want to be able to see if there is any mischief going on around town.  Darkness in and of itself is not bad.  It is the things that darkness can breed that are bad, right?

I believe that there is another kind of darkness that is bad and that is the darkness of sin.  I think of sin as darkness in the life.  And the more sin that controls us the more darkness we experience.  There are many that have felt the darkness so deep within their lives that they have finally ended their lives.  This kind of darkness is very dark.

More light needed…

When we get used to the darkness of sin that is in this world we find that our “eyes” have adjusted and things don’t seem so dark.  But when you flood your life with the Word of God and prayer you realize how dark the world really is around you.  You can’t see without the light.  The darkness seems even darker than before.  As we draw closer to Christ the darkness (sin) will become distasteful to us.

But the devil does not give up on us.  He wants us in full darkness.  So he makes us busy or throws some curveball into our lives.  And unconsciously we think a little light, that seemed to work in the darkness when we first started out, will work now that we have been flooded with light.  When you added a little amount of light from God’s Word or a little prayer you seemed to have seen a little better in the darkness of sin and didn’t stumble over the obvious.

Less time…

But as you spend less time with God you are going to notice that the little light is not as bright as it was when you first started.  After being flood with God’s Word and prayer, sporadic or less time does not clearly light the path.  And we start to stumble over what we use to see as the obvious when we first started with a little light.

When we first give our hearts to God he gives us just a little light.  If He flooded us with everything it would be overwhelming.  We have all experienced being in a dark room and then having someone turn on a bright light.  It actually blinds us at first.  That is why God does not give us all the light at one time.  It would be so overwhelming that it would blind us to more truth.  As we accept the little light He gives we will be given more light until we are so flooded with His light that sin will be distasteful to us.

This world…

The things in this world have become so much darker.  Sin has gone way beyond what my imagination could have imagined.  Atrocities that I would have never thought could possibly happen have happened.  But the reality is without God’s Word flooding my soul I can do things that I would have never thought I would do.

The devil likes to bring us into a creeping compromise.  He does things gradually so that we don’t detect what is happening, especially if we are not staying flooded with His Word.  As we gradually compromise different sins seem less and less offensive to us until we are doing things that we thought we would never choose to do.

The devil…

The devil works in reverse to God.  He gives us a little darkness.  We still seem to be seeing okay with the light that we have so we don’t notice when we finally accept that little bit of compromise.  He keeps doing this so gradually that before we know it the little light from the “Fitbit” seems to be bright but it really is not.  We are going to stumble and fall.  Discouragement will come and we will wonder what has happened.  Sin will not seem as bad.

Serious condition…

This is a very serious condition to be in.  We need to be constantly flooding our souls with God’s Word and being in much prayer.  With the technology that we have today, we have no excuses.  We can be flooding our minds with God’s Word constantly.  Besides reading it every day we can be listening to it as well.  As you drive to and from work, instead of turning on the radio listen to God’s Word.  Or spend that time praying.  To keep focused, if you are driving alone, you can pray out loud.  If you are a stay at home mom, listen while you are working in the kitchen.  Use your imagination and figure out ways to flood your soul.  As I write these words I am feeling the conviction in my own heart and I want to make changes.

Dear Father,

Thank You for the light that You have for us to lead us through this dark world.  Thank You for not blinding us with overwhelming light.  But giving it to us gradually as we surrender each area.  Help us to keep growing.  Continue to guide us as we struggle through this dark world of sin.  Protect us from the power of the evil one and his sly ways.  Open our eyes and let us see.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Make a commitment today with me to spend more time flooding your life with God’s Word and prayer.

Love you all!

Do you have an experience where you have had the light of God’s Word shine forth so vividly that you could see the obstacles clearly?  I would love to have you share.

 

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“Sleep? Do We Really Need It?”

All of us have the same 24-hour period.  And what we do with our time is our choice. It seems that we try to get more done each day than is humanly possible.  A lot of times what gets cut is how many hours of sleep we get.

In my own life I have been working on implementing the “BALANCED” life, which starts with Bedtime.  I do struggle with getting enough sleep.  I keep trying to cram as much into my day as possible.  Before I know it, it’s 10:30 at night and I am still working on getting into bed.  And 3:30 comes very quickly for another long day.  I have learned that this is not the best for me physically, emotionally or spiritually.

For each person the need for sleep will be different.  We should get between 6-10 hours of sleep per night depending on age, and health conditions.

Those that are very young need a lot more sleep.  A baby grows very rapidly at first and believe it or not a lot of growing happens while they are sleeping.  For the first couple of years it is good for them to spend more than half of their day (24 hours) sleeping.  Then it cuts back to more of half of the day (24 hours).

Another time when big growth spurts usually happen is in the teenage years.  I have read that a little over 9 hours a night is best for a teenager.  Wow, talk about difficult. It seems impossible to get them to get that many hours of sleep.  They think they are invincible and they don’t need all that sleep.  But the attitudes we have to deal with tell us something different.  They don’t understand that they will have to pay for this later on in life.  I think those of us that are older can attest to that.

For the average adult, we need anywhere from 6-10 hours of sleep.  I think we all know when we do the best and how much sleep we really need.  Now we may be ignoring the signs but deep down we know.

You all have heard the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  I don’t know about the wealth part, but I can say by experience that when I get to bed earlier it does make a difference in how early I can get up and have a great day.  I seem to do better when I get more hours in before midnight.

I know a lot of people will say, “That all sounds good but I have a hard time getting to bed any earlier than 11pm.  I just can’t seem to get relaxed enough to get to bed any earlier.  I just go and finely drop at 11pm.”

It is really good to have a morning routine and an evening routine.  The evening routine can be really good in helping a person to relax, whether you’re a teen or an adult.  This can also apply to children and some things to babies.  Most of the time if we are relaxed our babies, as well as our children, will be relaxed.  If we as adults learn to be calm and relaxed in the evening it has an effect on the rest of those in our home.

But there are some factors that can help in bringing about this relaxing atmosphere.

  1. Journal.  One thing that I have found beneficial is to journal.  This can be added to your morning and evening routine.  I have been using a very simple free app called “Five Minute Journal”.  It helps me get a focus on my day and then in the evening I can write down my best accomplishments for the day.  It also asks you what is one thing that could have been better.  This clears you mind from thinking on the day’s activities.
  2. Make a list. I also find it good to make a list of things that I need to get off my mind.  These may be things that I need to get done the next day, or any day in the future.  I use the free version of “Evernote” for my memory.  You can make separate notebooks and name them.  I love it.  So you can make a list, put a date at the top of each note and then just lay out some notes.  This is a good way to empty those things out of your mind that keep your mind running a hundred miles per hour.  You can even make it a checklist.  Each day as you accomplish these tasks check them off.  If you don’t get them done just copy and paste them into the next days list.
  3. Turn off all electronics. It is best to turn off all electronics at least one hour before going to bed.  The lights and activity of phones, computers, and television keep the brain stimulated.
  4. Read a book or listen to some calm, quiet music. This is really good for everyone.  If you have small children, read to them.  As you are reading they will start relaxing and so will you.  Even a teen can crawl into bed and have a book that can calm and relax them so that they are ready to sleep.
  5. Drink a hot cup of calming herb tea. This can be a great thing to do to get you calmed and relaxed.  One of my favorites is “Sleepy Time”, which you can get at most grocery stores as well as health food stores.
  6. Try implementing an essential oil routine. This is something I have learned about more recently and I love how certain essential oils work for me.  I put some on the bottom of my feet just before going to bed and it gives me restful sleep.  It is great!
  7. Prayer.  I have found this to be amazing as well.  After you have gone through your routine, crawl into bed and spend the next few minutes in prayer.  I can tell you this is a wonderful way to lay all your burdens on the One that cares.  He is the answer to all your problems and perplexities.  It is so relieving to give everything to God.

Dear Father,

Thank You that you are there to take all of our burdens.  Give us Your rest as we cast all our burdens upon you.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Remember to cast all your burdens upon the One that can give you true rest.

What routine do you do to relax yourself before bed?  I would love to hear your ideas.

 

 

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A “BALANCED” Life!

It seems like with the hustle and bustle of life can keep us from doing the things that we really need to be doing to keep a balanced life.  We get up run through the routine of taking a shower, dressing, getting the kids ready, getting a quick breakfast and out the door to school or to the baby sitters and then we are off to work.  At the end of the day we pick up the kids, get home fix a quick supper, get a little house work done, then sit in front of the TV, read a book, or play with the kids.  A lot of times the kids are left on their own because we don’t have time for them or we are just too tired.  We end up in bed late and then we start the cycle all over again.

We all have a busy life and it isn’t until we finally collapse that we have to take the time to reevaluate things.  I am going to share some ideas with you that have been a blessing to me.  I have an acronym that I will be going through in this blog but will be getting into more detail on each one in future blogs.  There are eight letters in my acronym and it leads to a BALANCED life.

  1. Bedtime.  We tend to think that we can just keep on going everyday without a proper amount of sleep.  We should be getting between 6-10 hours of sleep per night depending on age and health conditions.  There are so many benefits that come from getting plenty of rest.
  2. Aqua.  Aqua is Spanish for water.  Water is so important for the body.  Our body is made up of so much water.  We should be at least drinking half of our body weight in ounces.  Our bodies cannot function properly without water.  And it has to be water.  It is cleansing to our bodies.  Can you imagine washing dishes with soda pop, juice, coffee, or any other beverage?  Our dishes would not get clean.  We need to drink clean, clear water to keep our bodies clean.
  3. Light.  Our bodies need the light of the sun.  It is good for us to get out in the sunlight everyday.  We do have to be careful not to get too much sun.  But on the most part I think that a lot of us do not get as much sun as we should.
  4. Air.  We need to get some fresh air each day.  It can be easy just to go from our house to our car, from our car to our job and back again at the end of the day.  We need to be getting out each day and deep breathing the wonderful fresh air.  It is the way to clean out our lungs.
  5. Nutrition.  Nutrition is important for our bodies.  We need to be eating foods that will give us what our bodies need to function properly.  We need to be very balanced in what we eat.  It is also helpful within the times that we live to take a supplement
  6. Control.  We need to have self-control.  This can be a very hard thing to do.  We may be eating a lot of junk food and it can be hard to get a way from it.  We crave these things.  There can be some reasons for that, which I will get into in future blogs.  We can be struggling with our weight and staying fit because we are struggling with self-control.
  7. Exercise.  We need to keep active.  This not only strengthens our more visible muscles like our legs and arms but it also strengthens the heart.  Strengthening the heart is so important.  Exercise will help with many more things other than just muscles, like sleep and self-control.
  8. Dependence on God.  This is probably one of the most important.  We can do all of the other 7 things on this list but if we don’t have dependence on God our health can be destroyed.  We have to lay all of our burdens at His feet and let Him untangle the web that our lives may be in.

This is just a brief overview of the things that can bring a BALANCED life.  I will be getting into more depth on each of these in the coming blogs.

Dear Father,

You are the One that we can come to in any struggle that we may be going through.  To keep our lives BALANCED we need You.  Thank You that You are always there and all we need to do is reach out to you.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Start one step at a time to get your life BALANCED.

Do you feel like your life is out of balance?  What are some ways that you have done to accomplish a more BALANCED life?