Thinking Before I Speak

My husband is a very heavy sleeper. He can have all of the lights on, TV blaring, dishwasher whirring...and he sleeps right through it. I, on the other hand, wake up if a bird is chirping in the neighbor's yard...

3 blocks away.

So when the alarm clock went off Monday morning, I laid there in groggy confusion, then remembered what day it was and stumbled my way to the bathroom. (Granted the groggy confusion and stumbling take a bit of time, so it's about about 15 minutes since the alarm went off.)

I started the hot water and suddenly looked at the clock in the bathroom - it says 6:42 am (Yes, I vividly remember the exact number). That would be about 30 minutes BEFORE I needed to get up.

And an HOUR before Russ needed to get up. But he is a snooze-button-addict. He'll set the clock an hour before he needs to get up, then listen to the snooze button go off every ten minutes for an hour. This works if you can fall immediately back to sleep. But for those of us who can hear the birds 3 blocks away, it only makes you more and more irritated.

So back to the story - I turned the water off and marched (yes, marched) back to bed with the hopes of a blessed 30 minutes of peace.

It took about 3 minutes for his hour-long snooze-button fest to occur AGAIN at which point I snarl, "What on earth were you THINKING setting the alarm for 6:30??? I just wanted to have a few moments of PEACE!"

I remembered this cheery conversation as I did my devotional reading that night. For you see, the book I'm reading is, "Putting on a Gentle and Quiet Spirit."

Guess I've got a ways to go.

The truth is that 30 minutes wouldn't really have made a difference anyway. So my goal is to be ready with a "gentle and quiet spirit", so that the next time this happens (yes, it's happened before, it'll happen again) I can heed the words of one of my favorite (and most challenging) verses.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you SHINE LIKE STARS IN THE UNIVERSE."
Philippians 2:14-15