Who Can’t Sleep

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.

LET’S BE HONEST. There are morning people and there are nighttime people, and they are like creatures from different planets. That’s Mark and I. I’m a night owl. The big, bright object in the sky is just an annoyance to me until about 10 a.m., when I actually start to mentally wake up. I am so grateful that my husband is a morning person because those years of getting the kids to school were just brutal. But I love the quiet nighttime hours when I can read, reflect, and mostly just pray.

The Midnight Mom Devotional Facebook page began because a few thousand mommas told us, “Hey, I can’t sleep either, and I will pray with you!” In the beginning we called it the Midnight Mom check-in. We’d ask mommas to tell us in the comments of a post where they were and why they were awake. Thousands of women would reply. Mommas had all kinds of reasons for being up late—everything from feeding newborns to caring for sick children, from waiting for teenagers to come home to working the night shift.

Becky and I, who continue to call ourselves night owls, birthed an entire ministry as a result. We posted a nightly prayer, and women responded with their requests for years. Then one night in 2017, we posted a prayer that went viral (see page ^a). Tens of thousands of women responded and shared it with the other mommas in their lives. The growth of the page hasn’t stopped since. Whether women are naturally night owls or early birds, sleep still remains elusive for so many reasons.

When I was in college, I found a Scripture that I hung on to whenever I couldn’t sleep because of worry: “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Knowing that the Lord was keeping me safe while I slept was a new concept to me. For some reason, I thought He was busy only with people who were awake and making significant decisions. But that Scripture helped me know that He is watching over me all the time and that it is okay to rest because He never slumbers.

Tonight, no matter what is stealing your sleep or your peace, remember that God keeps you and those you love in His hands, even after you close your eyes. He will continue to sort it all out, even as you sleep. Our prayer is that He brings you rest.

Tonight we pray for the momma who can’t sleep. She is so tired, but there is so much on her mind and it just won’t turn off so she can rest. Lord, tonight we ask that You quiet her heart. Let her rest in the knowledge that You are already working on everything she has to do tomorrow. Let her receive sweet, restorative sleep. Multiply the rest she gets tonight.

We ask in Jesus’s name, amen.

Lord, thank You for meeting me and helping me in these midnight moments with . . .