Night Watchman, The

Dad
May 23, 2003

DO 1699 11/83

1. I WAS THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT HOW POORLY I SLEEP AT NIGHT BUT HOW GOOD I CAN SLEEP IN THE DAYTIME & I GOT A FUNNY ANSWER: In the daytime everybody is awake so the Devil has to divide his forces so he can keep busy attacking everybody here, but at night they all sleep good & soundly so he can't bother them, so all his little devils concentrate on me & I have a feeling like at night when everybody is asleep that I've got to carry the ball & the burden sort of like for everybody. I have to be the Watchman on the wall because I'm the only one awake. (Maria: But do you have to have that feeling? Does the Enemy's attack make you have it or do you have it already, which causes you to sort of stay awake & so then you get attacked, or is it that you get attacked because you are awake & you have that feeling?) Maybe it's both.

2. (MARIA: WHY DOESN'T THE ENEMY ATTACK THE REST OF US IN THE NIGHT?) Well, there's something about you young healthy ones that sleep so soundly that the Lord must protect you in your sleep. You must have some kind of automatic protection. (Maria: Because if you sleep more soundly then you can't be attacked so easily‚ huh?—The sounder you sleep the harder it is for you to be annoyed by bad spirits.)

3. IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THE TRADITION THAT THE EVIL SPIRITS ARE MORE ACTIVE AT NIGHT in the dark & it seems like at night I have an extremely keen sense of hearing & can hear every little sound, every little noise & my ears are extremely alert because I realise that I'm the only one awake & the only one that's listening & I'd better hear what's going on, so I just lie awake listening sometimes.

4. I JUST SLEEP LIKE A LOG IN THE DAYTIME, I SLEEP SO SOUNDLY! It's just like, "Well, I don't have to be on duty now, I don't have to carry the load for the whole Family & I don't have to listen for every sound & be the one who is the Watchman on the wall. I can take my time off now." (Maria: Well‚ it's too bad then that you can't just sleep all day & stay up all night. Too bad you have to go to bed at night & just lie there awake so often.)

5. I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO SLEEP ALL DAY. Old people don't need that much sleep. We don't have that much physical exercise to tire us enough to need so much sleep. (Maria: I don't either & I sleep all the time.) No, you don't! If you'd add up all the hours you actually soundly sleep you would find that you probably don't sleep much more than I do.

6. ESPECIALLY WHEN I'M UP & AWAKE YOU'RE SO WAKEFUL. Every little thing I do, every noise I make, I can't even turn over in the bed without your asking me, "Are you all right? Are you all right? Can I get you something? What do you need?" Honey, I start to turn over in the bed & you jump clear out of bed sometimes, thinking I'm going to get out to get something when all I'm doing is turning over. So you jump out of bed thinking you're going to beat me to it so I won't get out of bed to get it. You're super hypersensitive to my movements & try to pre-anticipate what I'm going to do so you can jump up & do it for me. GBY! ILY!

7. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU SHOULD BE SO CONCERNED ABOUT ME. (Maria: Honey! That's my job! That's my business.) You'd think I was some kind of a sick invalid or something. Well, I am a little sick & I am a little in-valid right now but that doesn't mean every time I turn over you've got to jump out of bed!

8. IF I TURN OVER ON THIS SIDE I DON'T GURGLE. It must be my left lung. I don't think I've ever had such a cold before where I've been so congested for so long, but I'm gettin' it up little by little, praise the Lord! It's funny how if I turn over on my right side it stops gurgling. Maybe it sort of spreads out more or something. You know‚ I sleep on my left side more than any other way & apparently this causes the congestion to sort of accumulate in my left lung.

9. WHEN I'M IN SWIMMING & GASPING FOR BREATH IT STOPS GURGLING ENTIRELY. I don't know whether it's because I inhale the whole thing or what. (Maria: Swimming really makes you feel better, even while you're right in there. As soon as you go in swimming you start feeling a lot better.) And I hardly cough at all.—Amen. TYJ! Jesus help me!