Sweet, Sweet Dreams

Sometimes at night when I tuck my daughters in, my five-year-old tells me she is worried she might have a bad dream. When this happens, I stretch my palm out on her head like a giant spider, and I make slurping sounds. Then I tell her that the bad dream sucking spider is sucking all the scary thoughts out of her head. This makes her laugh, and within minutes she drifts off to sleep. Most of the time I don’t hear from her again till the next morning. I ask her what she dreamed about, and usually it involves unicorns and/or butterflies. I love imagining what these dreams must be like. Once when this same daughter was younger and barely learning to speak, she was asleep in her bed, and she drew in a deep breath, and then sighed, “butterfly”. It warmed my heart. A couple of weeks ago my two-year-old daughter was sleeping and moving her hand to her mouth like she was holding a spoon, and then she would make chewing motions. I love imagining what she was dreaming about eating. An ice-cream sundae? A slice of pie? I’ll never know.

It seems that many people close to me are facing dark struggles right now. Failed ambitions. Failed relationships. Family members facing drug addiction. Miscarriage. Serious illness. Terminal illness. In times like these, we pray for great big things. We pray for miracles. Healings. Changes of heart. Sometimes we pray that we’ll wake up and find it was all just a nightmare. And sometimes none of these things are an immediate part of God’s will. I can’t claim to have ever had a struggle as deep as some of the ones my loved ones are enduring right now. But whenever I’ve had to truly put my life in God’s hands, some of my prayers begin to change. I pray for smaller things. I pray for a future that can somehow look brighter than it does at that moment. Sometimes, I pray for a very immediate future to be brighter. I pray for an uninterrupted night of beautiful, peaceful dreams, followed by a beautiful sunlit morning. I pray it for myself. I pray it for the people I love.

Philippians 4:7 has long been a favorite scripture of mine. It inspired what is perhaps my most well known song, “It Passes All My Understanding”.  But just this past week I payed a little closer attention to the scriptures that come just before and after. Here’s the whole thing:

Philippians 4

6: Be careful for nothing; (Greek translation in the footnotes interprets this as “don’t be unduly concerned about anything”) but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8: Finally, bretheren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just , whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

I really love those scriptures. They tell me how I can begin to feel the peace I often seek. I translate all of this to mean: “Are you a serious worrier? Well, cut it out. Not so easy? Here’s what you do. Pray for what you want and need. Then set that aside and be thankful for the heaps of blessings you do, indeed currently have. Trust me, there are lots. And then, look for the good that’s in this world. Look at the simple miracles that happen everywhere around you. Beautiful butterflies. Wildflowers. The smile of a child. Virtue. Kindness. A perfect night of dreams. You’re going to start feeling better if you can do these things. We’ll get you from one moment to the next rather happily this way.”

Well, all of this turned out to be heavier than I intended today. But maybe lighter, too, in a way. Let me leave you with a sweet lullaby I wrote for my two daughters, and my son who is on the way in a few months. May it fill your mind with images that inspire sweet, sweet dreams.

Sweet, Sweet Dreams