Midnight Moments

Winter has never been friendly to the health of my family. Nor has it been friendly toward our desires for a good night's sleep. The two go hand in hand, since our children's stuffy noses, fevers, coughs, sore throats, etc., disrupt our children's sleep and therefore our sleep. Though it is cute at first to stay up comforting our babies, by the end of winter it is downright infuriating. Such was my feeling not long ago, when our baby not only could not sleep but could not stop crying. Such has been the feeling now that she is sick again. I try to muster up some sympathy for her by thinking about how uncomfortable she feels, how frustrating it is for her not to be able to communicate her needs, or how much it hurts when teeth break through. It works a little. The thing that has rekindled our patience, however, was a talk by a man named Richard G. Scott on families. He told the story of the loss of his infant son to a difficult illness. The baby would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night crying. His condition was such that his heart would race and he would soil the bed clothes. From experience, it is difficult to wake up in the middle of the night to calm a baby and change the baby's clothes and the bed sheets all while feeling groggy. But this man volunteered to give his wife a break and take care of the baby, not knowing that the baby would pass away a short time later. I'm sure he felt peaceful knowing that he appreciated that moment with his son. This had a great impact on my wife and me, and I hope that we can be better at appreciating the midnight moments.