Growing up, I learned to make my bed first thing in the morning. This is always the case with me and I thought everybody does the same thing.
Well, I got married and found out that not everybody makes their bed first thing in the morning.
Making bed in the morning is the last of my husband’s worries.
I thought he forgot to make it for the first few days. So, it was okay for me to make the bed.
But soon I said to myself, “Okay, this is not fair. I need to talk to him.”
So, I said to him in the morning before I left for work (I used to go to work before him), “I need to talk to you tonight.”
“Uh-oh! What did I do?” He said looking at my eyes.
I simply said, “I want to talk to you about one issue that is bothering me.”
Guess what he said?
“I hope it is not about making our bed in the morning?”
My jaw literally dropped!
“So, you knew about it all along and you chose not to do it to upset me,” I said this to myself but looked at him squarely and left that one bedroom apartment as quickly as I could.
I thought he was purposely not making the bed to upset me and in a way teach me how to live with a messed up bed.
Just imagine my day!
So, I came home and we sat down and I said, “Now I know why you are not making the bed in the morning. You want to upset me and you’re trying to change me. Guess what? I won’t change!”
I think smoke or something was coming out of my nose and ears.
My Berhan is a very calm guy. He looked at me and held my hands.
I pulled my hands out of his hands as quickly as I could and said, “I am not playing a game here. I am dead serious. You know that I leave the house before you. When you are the last person to leave the house, you have to make the bed.”
He calmly said, “My Love, do you know for how many times you’re telling me this?”
I kinda wanted to say, “The first time!” But I knew it was not. So, I said, “It doesn’t really matter. You have to make the bed before you leave the house. Period!”
Just imagine, our apartment is as tiny as it can get and our bed is the only big item in that house and I get irritated when I see it unmade.
“Making our bed is not as big of a deal to me as it is to you. So, I simply don’t remember making it. And this is the truth,” he said. “It’s not like I purposely leave the bed. I don’t even see anything wrong with our bed. It is you and I who live in this apartment and as far as I am concerned, the house always looks good.”
You may think that we settled this issue right there. No, we did not.
I told him to change and be “like me” so we can live happily ever after and he never changed!
Then one day, in my morning devotion, I studied John 5, where Jesus healed the man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.
Jesus simply said to the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Verse 8
While I was thinking and meditating on this verse, I felt like Jesus said to the man who was on this same “bed” (mat) for 38 years, “Get up. Make your bed and walk.”
Wow! How simple! Just get up and make your bed or carry your mat and go.
Since I know how to be sick and be in bed for a number of days with migraine headaches, I felt like that particular verse was speaking directly to me:
“Making your bed is the sign of God’s mercy, grace and His healing touch on you.”
I am writing this in the presence of God, and God is my witness when I say this:
From that day on, I don’t let my husband or anybody make “my” bed! My husband knows this, so do our kids. I made “my bed” all by myself!
The time I make our bed turns into a worship time: Oh, Father, thank You for letting me make our bed this morning. Thank You for Your mercy which is new every morning. Thank You for Your healing touch and thank You for Your grace that enabled me to make our bed. Please Abba remember those who are unable to make their beds this morning.
Yes, that is my morning especially after I slept on my bed for a number of days because of migraine headaches, like this morning.
It usually takes few days for my body to adjust to a weather change and the pressure change triggers migraine headaches.
So, today, after sleeping on my bed for few days, I got up and said,
“Abba, thank You for healing me and helping me make my bed, the bed that carried me for the past few days. I praise You LORD!”
So, what is my message today?
My friends, don’t wait until a big thing happens to you to praise and thank God. If you left your bed today and you are standing on your feet, praise God!
He is the air we breath. Oh, His mercy and grace are many on each one of us.
“Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, you his servants;
praise the name of the Lord.
Let the name of the Lord be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
he seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He settles the childless woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the Lord.” Psalm 113 ///