I often sat in my mother’s lap until I was 12. During my childhood, she “tucked me in” every night at bedtime, but I was not a momma’s boy. I knew the sting of her leather belt when I misbehaved. Sometimes the whelps on my back were visible for hours. My father, a good, but uneducated man, sometimes said, “Pig,” his nickname for my mother, “That’s enough.” It had little effect on my mother’s disciplinary practice, usually meted out in anger. It was the way we were raised in the 1930s.
Strangely, the deeper, more meaningful memories return to the tenderness I received at bedtime. She listened to my prayers and was always reassuring. She never mentioned worries of her own though the great depression engulfed my childhood. I rested in her love. My sleep was refreshingly sound until her death in 1971, the day she read that I was opening my practice in Charlottesville.
As a member of the larger family, the community, the Commonwealth, the Nation to which I’m privileged to belong, needs a loving, motherly person to hear our prayers and tuck us in at bedtime. We would all rest and sleep more peacefully.
In fact, we have a motherly person, God incarnate Himself, who inspired the authors of the world’s mostly widely read and purchased book, the Bible, in which He addresses our need for rest and for sleep.
It is time to rest for all families large and small. Our larger family, burdened by years of cancel culture and post-logicalism, has witnessed truth being trampled while feeling helpless to change it.
We need to rest from bitterness, prejudice, and hatred. We need to rest from lies hatefully promoted on TV channels and in the printed media. We need a prolonged rest from the promotion of alcohol as a beverage. Alcohol is depicted in movies today as smoking was in the 20th century. Waiting lists for liver transplants to replace livers damaged by the toxic effects of alcohol are longer than ever, a fact promoters of alcohol choose not to acknowledge.
We need to rest not in ourselves but in the Lord who created us in His image and likeness. Often, I sing to myself or to my dear wife songs that lighten my heart. One of my favorites comes from a 1954 movie called White Christmas. The song is “Count Your Blessings.” Bing Crosby sang:
“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep and I fall asleep counting my blessings.
“When my bankroll is getting small, I think of when I had none at all and I fall asleep counting my blessings.
“I think about a nursery, and I picture curly heads, and one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds.
If you’re worried and you can’t sleep, just count your blessings instead of sheep and you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings.”
In the 10th century B.C., David who killed the giant as a lad, played the harp and composed Psalms, wrote this to help us sleep: “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8.
David, a man who sinned and repented in his heart and soul, reminded us of God’s love and motherly patience with those whose faith is firmly established in Him:
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Psalm 103:1-4.
Joseph Liberman, now deceased, was a US Senator from Connecticut. In 2000 he was a Vice-Presidential candidate of the US, the first Jew to run for national office. In his book, The Gift of Rest, he described walking 4.5 miles from the Senate to his home in a “downpour.” A Secret Service Officer walked beside him and a Police car drove beside him, but he walked because it was the Sabbath. As a Jew, he obeyed the command to keep the Sabbath Holy. Walking 4.5 miles was considered work. “I could feel the water sloshing in my shoes,” he said, “but I follow and respect the commandments of God.”
There are 4 Bibles in the average American home. Find one, dust off the cover, check the concordance in the back, and read what God says about rest and sleep. If you are not amazed, intrigued, and inspired, you have picked up the wrong book. Keep looking until you find and read the Bible.
– Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.