Insomnia, Faith and The Brother of Jared

Over the past few months my ten-year-old son Gabriel has had a very difficult time staying asleep.  He will usually go to sleep without too much problem, but he will only stay asleep for three or four hours before he wakes up.  I think he freaks himself out a little and makes himself scared instead of turning over and going back to sleep.  At that point he goes into his little brother's room and gets into his little twin bed with him and will either go to sleep, or turn on a movie and watch it while Jake is trying to sleep.  Needless to say, Jake's very annoyed at Gabe for interrupting his sleep!  We've tried pretty much everything we can think of, short of drugging him--Which, admittedly, we did try Nyquil one night, but to no avail!!  We are all very frustrated and at our wits end!

A few days ago we were starting reading the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon where it talks about the Brother of Jared seeing the finger of Christ and then later seeing Christ.  It, then, describes his tremendous faith.  Gabe was so impressed by this story and asked his dad if he (Gabe) had faith like the Brother of Jared, would he be able to sleep?  We were so amazed at this boy's understanding a practical application of this very basic but fundamental principle!  These are those pay-off moments that parents wait for!  Wow!  Todd reaffirmed this to him and as he said prayers with him and tucked him in that night, he prayed with so much intensity and asked to be blessed with that amount of faith that he needed to sleep and stay in his own bed.

The next morning he came into our room and told us that he slept in his bed the whole night!  He slept pretty well, but did wake up during the night.  Instead of getting up and going into Jake's bed, though, he said a prayer that he would stay in his own bed and not be scared.  He stayed in his bed!

How grateful I am tonight.  I'm overwhelmed with love and gratitude to God for giving me so many precious gifts; my family, my faith, and the scriptures.  I can't and don't want to imagine my life without any one of these things.  I feel so very blessed to have a gospel centered home and to know where I can go for answers to anything or any problems that cross my path.  I love my Gabe...