Catherine, a spiritual director on a retreat once shared with the women present: “I asked God when He is most pleased with me, and He told me it’s when I’m sleeping.” This answer initially frustrated Catherine, who had a type A personality, and found satisfaction and fulfillment in accomplishing many good things for God. However, she realized, He loved her most when she was sleeping, not when she was working hard and doing things.
When is a baby most beautiful to it’s mother? When it’s asleep! “What a little angel!” We silently breathe. “So perfect, so beautiful! Shhhh. Don’t wake up the baby!” The baby isn’t doing anything for us while it sleeps. In fact, the baby can’t do much for us anyway. She is so helpless, and in her need she trusts her parent to provide for her and relies on them for everything. This does not make us resent a baby; rather, the baby’s need for us draws us to it.
God is our Heavenly Father, and it may be true that He gazes upon us like we gaze on our helpless little babies. We are nothing without Him. We would die unless He gave us breath! We can’t save ourselves, we can’t fulfill ourselves. He sustains us, provides for us, helps us, loves us. And perhaps our littleness, weakness, and dependence on Him renders us even more endearing to His father’s heart.
Next time you try to pray and fall asleep, surrender yourself to your Heavenly Father’s arms. He will be pleased with your effort and understanding of your weakness. The end goal of lectio divina is contemplation, which could be described in one way as “resting in God”. If your rest is actual sleep, and you give Him your desire to pray, your desire to be with Him, and rest in Him, your sleep may even become a beautiful form of prayer.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” -Psalm 46:10
Now, if you need some practical tips because you want to pray but fall asleep every time you try to sit down and do it, here you go!
7 Practical Tips for Praying When You’re Exhausted:
- Pray while on a walk. Early morning. After dinner. Sunset. Anytime is wonderful for walking and praying. You can even imagine Jesus walking beside you (He is) while you converse with Him, just like Adam and Even did in the Garden of Eden.
2. Pray with coffee. If you’ve ever done an internet search for images of Bibles and coffee, you will know there are hundreds or thousands of people who put these two wonderful things together on a daily basis.
3. Pray in a group. Group lectio divina can be absolutely wonderful. I’ve experienced this in small groups of women as well as in groups of married couples.
4. Change something up: Are you trying to pray at bedtime or after lunch when you typically are at your lowest point? What about trying a different time of day, such as after exercising in the morning, or right after dinner when your husband can watch the kids and you can slip out to the porch or for a walk? Are you trying to pray for a half hour but you zone out or get distracted? Start with 5-10 minutes focused pray and build on it when the habit is stronger.
5. Journal your prayer time. Maybe you would benefit from writing down your conversation with the Lord in a journal to keep actively engaged in your prayer time? Check out the beautiful journals in our shop that are designed exactly to help women do this.
6. Pray standing up or kneeling down. While walking is my favorite posture for quiet prayer time, I know women who love standing at a window facing the sunrise, or kneeling by their bedside. Posture goes a long way in telling our minds and bodies what we are doing. As an added bonus, children who see their parents kneeling to pray are sometimes very deeply affected by this witness.
7. Go to sleep and try again tomorrow when you’re rested.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…”
-Lamentations 3:22-23
