What I was thinking about at 4:12 am after my child wet the bed...

Disclaimer: I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to Genesis lately. It seems that my life has involved a lot of family related stuff recently, which has inspired more family oriented blogs. I promise to get back to Genesis asap. Lately though, I've been too tired to really think, write, or study the Bible, so I didn't want to put forward a sub-par blog. My fans deserve better...all four of you. 

Yep, last night my middle child,. who will remain nameless, wet the bed. She is potty trained, but has problems at night sometimes, so she wears nighttime diapers. You would think that by their very name, "Nighttime Diapers", they would keep the bed dry during the night. Not so, my friends, not so. There's only so much liquid those things can hold before they burst like a dam. Gross analogy? Yes. Accurate? Yes. So what, (patent pending), does a parent do at 4 am when their child waddles into your room and says she wet the bed?

Child: Mommy/Daddy, I wet the bed.
Parent: Just find a dry corner of the bed and make the best of it until morning. (I didn't really say that, but I wanted to).

90% of the time when these things happen my wife gets up. Why? Because she's the better person in our marriage and wants me to sleep as much as possible. Tonight however, (rather this morning I should say), I got up to help Ms. Wetthebed because my wife had only gotten about 8 hours of sleep during the last 72 hours and I felt sorry for her. So I got up, changed sheets, changed clothes, threatened my daughter with torture if she got back out of bed before 7, and went back to bed. (Please note: I am not a nice person after midnight and pee only makes things worse).

Aruba. Where no children ever wet the bed. It's a law.

So I'm laying there in bed trying to go back to sleep, but I can't. I'm laying there thinking, "Why is parenting so hard? Why does my two year old son act like either an angry prison inmate or a moody Hollywood actor? Why won't my children listen to me when I ask them to do something simple, like eat their spaghetti? Why do my kids occasionally disrespect their parents who love, feed, nurture, and take care of them when they are sick? Why do kids get sick all of the time? Why do children have to wet the bed? Why is it I can't get at least 7 uninterrupted hours of sleep without someone in the house having a crisis? What is the point of all of this? Is it possible my wife and I could move to Aruba and leave the kids with the grandparents for the next two years? Why do I smell like pee?"

These are the thoughts a parent, (or at least this parent), has at 4:30 in the morning because their child wet the bed and now you're angry because you had to get up to fix the wetness. Now you're too angry to go back to sleep which makes you more angry. Now you start thinking and worrying, and all of a sudden it's time to get up and go to work. Being a parent is just so exhausting because you're always on call. If you're a nurse or doctor, you're on call for a certain period, then you're off for so many days before going back to work. If you are an extreme athlete or long distance runner there's a certain training period before the race and then once the race is over you can take a break. Heck you can quit during training or even during the race if you want. If you're a Congressman you...really don't do anything of merit, so that doesn't apply here, (I couldn't resist). If you're a CEO, you're certainly always on call, but even those types of guys/gals get vacation days in Aruba where they can play golf, swim, or hang out with that guy.

But if you're a parent you are always on duty. You don't get off duty until the children go to college, (theoretically). You have to be ready all the time for whatever may come up, (sickness, pee, homework, bullies, more pee, more sickness, PTA, Girl Scouts, soccer, ballet, pee, gifts, birthdays, parties, activities, fights, pee, ad nauseum). It's exhausting. (It's also extremely rewarding. I have been meaning to do another blog on the rewards of having children, i.e. they get rich and take care of you later in life, but right now I'm doing the 4 am pee story).

So with all of this in mind, I lay there thinking: What is the point of all of this? How do my wife and I survive? How do we keep going? As I lay there I began thinking about the book of Hebrews, which is in the Bible. We had studied a portion of the book last week in church and I started thinking about what we talked about. The Hebrews were a group of Jews who had converted to Christianity in the 1st century. They were experiencing some tough times. They were being persecuted for their faith in Christ both by the government and from the Jews who they had left to put their faith in Christ. It was a very hard time for them and some of the Hebrews were considering going back to Judaism, forsaking Jesus Christ and their faith in him. The writer of the book sends them this letter/sermon to remind them of the superiority of Jesus over anything Judaism had to offer and to encourage them to hold on to Jesus.

One of the things the author highlights to his audience is the reward there is in trusting and following Christ to the end and how that reward is greater than anything the world has to offer. He mentions how Moses, (think Charlton Heston, 10 Commandments), "considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt...for he endured as seeing him who is invisible", (Hebrews 11:26-27). The author also mentions how Jesus, "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God," (Hebrews 12:2). The author's point is that there is greater reward, ultimately, in trusting in and enduring for Jesus Christ, than there is in submitting to sin, falling away from Christ, and enjoying whatever the world has to offer.

Let me offer a disclaimer here. My struggles with a wet bed at 4 am do not compare with a Christian being persecuted for his faith in ancient Rome or a Christian being persecuted for his faith in Syria or Egypt today, (all though no one in the media or Congress bothers to mention these people, but I digress). There are to be sure, others who are suffering to a much higher degree than I am. I have friends who have cancer and are fighting to survive. I have friends whose children are breaking their heart and it is pure agony to even watch. I know people who deal with physical disabilities and will do so for the rest of their lives. I have good friends who are struggling with broken marriages where they don't get to see their kids on a regular basis. My struggles with sick children and wet beds is minuscule compared to the pain that others are enduring.

However, I think it's fair to say that all of us, parent or not, single or married, sick or healthy, wet bed or dry bed, deal with or will deal with those 4 am questions in some form or another. "What am I doing? How do I get through this? Is it worth it? Is my faith in Jesus worth it? Why don't I just give up and give in?" The principle of greater joy applies to whoever is trying to walk with the Lord in a broken and fallen world. But what is that greater joy? What is the reward we look forward to as believers in Jesus? What do we hold on to at 4 am?

I believe in one way or another it is the reminder that there is greater joy to be found in being faithful to Jesus Christ than forsaking obedience and giving up. That joy may not be found in this life. It may be when you die and go to be with Jesus rather than what you experience on earth. For me, at 4 am this morning, it was the thought of God saying to me one day, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful to love, train, lead, care for, and model Christ to your children. It was hard, it wore you out, but you were faithful to me in how you cared for them." It is the thought that "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us", (Romans 8:18). It is the thought that there is a reward to me from God for being faithful and not giving up to what he has called me. In my case right now that means being a faithful dad, husband, and employee. It means honoring Jesus in all that I do, proclaiming who he is, and living faithfully according to his Word. It means me stating Jesus was the Son of God who came to earth, died on the cross and in the process bore the penalty for man's rebellion against God. He rose from the grave on the third day and offers life and forgiveness for those who would believe on him for "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved," (Acts 4:12).

Being a parent is hard. Cleaning pee at 4 am when you just want to sleep is hard. Taking care of your sick children is hard and it breaks your heart. Dealing with a two year old boy who appears to have some sort of hormonal anger issue is hard. Being faithful to love and discipline your children is hard. Doing, (fill in the blank), in a fallen and sinful world is really difficult, especially when the world we live in does not typically value or reward such faithfulness to God. But there is a reward from God for faithfulness. There is an eternal reality that is greater and has greater profit than living for ourselves or for what the world espouses as "good". The truth of greater joy and reward before God by being faithful to him and His Son Jesus in wherever I find myself was what sustained me and allowed me to go back to sleep at 4:30 this morning.

We all have to deal with this in some form or another:

But we have to remember this: