Nightmares suck. Yeah, I know that’s obvious, but they become life-changing when they happen all the time. I have dealt with periods of time when I had one or more nightmares every night for a lengthy amount of time. The recent bout has lasted for about one-and-a-half years.
Every night I make sure all my sheets are tucked in nice and neat and every morning they are all untucked and coming off the bed. When I was in a hotel with my oldest son one night, he woke me up because I was thrashing around and making noises. When I was in a hotel with my other son, he told me in the morning that I had fallen asleep really fast and that I was making noises. I asked him what kind of noises and he said, “Scary!” (he’s sixteen – not a word they usually use).
The nightmares have mainly been variations of things that have happened in my life. Reliving the rough times in my sleep isn’t fun, but the worst part about them is that they are filled with abuse. It is horrible and completely draining. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up exhausted every day. I have prayed and prayed for relief and there have been periods of times where I wouldn’t have the nightmares all the time, but it wasn’t the relief I craved. I know God answers prayer and His answer to mine for so long appeared to be “wait”. I wanted so much for the answer to be yes…and He finally gave me that answer.
It hasn’t been answered in a way I ever would have thought of, but His answers rarely are what we would think of. My answer came when I was listening to K-Love (a contemporary Christian radio station I start my day with every morning). The DJ’s had posed this question to discuss: What do you do to help your kids with nightmares? One of the answers changed my life with these eight words – we sleep with our bible under our pillows.
What a genius idea!
So that night I picked up my bible, lifted my pillow, said a prayer, laid it down and placed my pillow back over it. I fell asleep. When I woke, my sheets were all tucked in where they were when I went to sleep. The biggest thing, though, was that I…felt…rested! Oh, my word! This is what it feels like to not be exhausted? This is what it feels like to be able to think clearly? This is what it feels like to be able to make plans for the future and not just live moment by moment? I still have the rough dreams, but I think of them as indicators that there are still things I need to work through. The abusers, however, seem to be unable to talk to me in them. I talk to them, but they don’t talk back. It has made all the difference in the world! This is something I now do every night and in the morning I take the Bible back out and thank Him.
Nightmares suck, but God is good.
~ Joanna Lynn
That’s awesome!!!