Becoming Like Him - Day 28 - Wake

For my 31 days of writing, I am linking up over at Heading Home and over at the Nester. There are several of us that are taking the 31 day writing challenge. Kate has suggested that we spend 31 days of Five minute writing. You can use the prompts or write about anything you would like, you just need to write.

I am sharing my journey for 31 days as I strive to become more like Him. My prayer is that you can find hope and peace in my words.

One day, someone is going to hug you so tight, 

that all the broken pieces will stick back together.

Today the prompt is:

WAKE

START

When my older children were teenagers, they often had a hard time waking up in the morning.  Every single one of them did not like getting out of bed, getting ready for school, or eating a decent breakfast.  I usually made oatmeal or grits or even rice breakfast.  Those ones were filling and I could make a lot, but I really got a little grouchy when the teens would not listen to me and wake up and rise out of those beds.  

As a matter of fact, several mornings saw them pull covers tightly over heads and snuggle back down for more sleep.  It probably wouldn't have been so bad, except they kept missing the buses and making me late for work.  I could not afford to lose a job because they didn't care whether or not they made it to school on time.  

I tried everything I could think of to make it easier for them to get up, they all had their own alarm clocks, I would turn the lights on, we made everyone go to bed earlier and we even went to bed ourselves.  

It never seemed to matter.  When it came to sleeping in, those kids were right on top of it.  Finally, in desperation, I threw a glass of water on the heads of two of the biggest culprits.  The boy, leaped out of bed and shouted "MOM!  What are you doing?"  The girl cried big alligator tears because she just knew that I ruined her bed.  

However, they do joke about it today.  They could both swear that I took a garden hose to the beds and nearly drowned them in ice cold freezing water, (in reality, it was about 4 oz of water, lukewarm out of the tap and not even cold).  They have told all the younger siblings, so I have never again had difficulty getting anyone else out of bed in the mornings.  The youngest girls get themselves up even if we don't do it for them.

I really wasn't trying to be mean, I just needed those teens to respect what I was doing for them.  As much as they complained at the time, they never made me late to work in the rest of the years they lived at home.  They have grown into responsible adults who wake themselves every single day.  

It makes me wonder if Heavenly Father ever gets tired of telling us to wake up and look at what is going on around us.  The scriptures tell us many of the same things over and over again.  I am guessing, that the reason we have to hear things more than once, is because we too can be just like my sleeping teens.  We don't always want to open our eyes and wake to reality.  We don't always listen when we should.  Sometimes we have to be reminded.  We need that startling wake up call that makes us remember those things that are most important.  

STOP