All [mortals’] days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.   Ecclesiastes 2:23

When I awake in the night, my mind sometimes tends to race. That’s when my “problems on parade” prevent me from going back to sleep. Events of the day revisit me, disrupting my slumber and turning me into a tossing, turning, sheet-pulling worry wart.  It’s 2 a.m. and the battle that has been raging in my mind has now switched to a struggle for sleep. After some time, my pleadings for the rest I deserve and need become demands.

But, finally surrendering, I begin to pray. I’ve learned to be specific and direct in praying for each situation that has been tugging at me. One by one, each “float” in the parade of problems is removed from the line with the words: “Thy will be done, not mine.” Instead of clinging to my wisdom and my human solutions, I visualize myself placing each problem in God’s hands. I actively, deliberately “leave all [my] worries with [God] because he cares for [me]” (1 Pet. 5: 7). And sometimes even before I finish the list, I am asleep again.  In the morning some of the same problems may come back to mind. When that happens, I remind myself often and prayerfully that I have turned them over to God.