After an incredibly long busy day today all I could think about was wanting to go to bed. As I sat down to write a blog the thought came into my mind that I should search past blogs I’d written that had the phrase “go to bed” in them. So I did and it brought up a blog I’d written back in March of 2015 titled “Go To Bed and Get A Good Night’s Sleep, Tomorrow Will Be Better”. It was exactly the advice I needed tonight. It read as follows:
“Today was a long, busy, stressful day, and it was a Monday which always feels a little more stressful than the rest of the days of the week for some reason…perhaps that’s because we put everything out of our minds in order to enjoy our weekends and then Monday morning we are forced to deal with all of it again. Beyond the stress of having a million things to get done I spent the day watching for my email from daughter (who is out serving a mission for our church) to come through as Monday is the only day she is allowed to send her weekly update to us. The day went on and on and no email came through. Normally they email in the morning so as the day went on and nothing came….talk about stress for a mother! When you only get one email a week to begin with and then that email doesn’t come you have to do everything you can to not let your mind run wild with what could have gone wrong. I tried using all the positive talk I could on myself, saying everything was surely okay, and that worked until nighttime came and still no email was there.
Tired, and stressed out, I decided to call my Dad. Sometimes a girl just needs her Dad, ya know? I poured out my heart to my Dad and dumped all my worries of the day on him and he chuckled calmly and said, “Go to bed and get a good night’s sleep, tomorrow will be better.” (Dang I love my Dad!) Such a perfect thing to say to me at that moment. Seriously love my Dad. I think Dad’s have a special ability for making you feel safe and secure. They can give you the confidence that all will be okay (all the Dad’s out there reading this should remember that influence they have on their kids…we need our Dad’s!)
Before I head to bed tonight I decided to reach out to another mother who has a daughter serving in the same area to see if she knew if our girls were okay. She offered to contact a friend she has in the area to at least find out that the girls were safe (thank you!!!). Apparently they had been traveling today and hadn’t gotten back in time to get to a place they could email so they would be allowed to email us tomorrow instead…thank heavens!
I guess if I have any message to share with all of you today it is this: When you get to the end of a tough day and you’re struggling to hang on, take my Dad’s advice: “Go to bed and get a good night’s sleep, tomorrow will be better.”
~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )