The Sleepless Child

There once was a young boy who was scared to go to sleep at night. It was the dark, the quiet, and the loneliness of an empty room.

The boy had trouble going to sleep and would get up and try to find a reason to stay up or say he needed to ask his parents a question.

Usually, the question was something like, “Hey, did you just go outside and take a bite out of a piece of grass?”

His parents would tell him to go get back in bed like they’d told him the last forty times. And they didn’t use their inside voices. They would take him to his room, demand that he get in bed, and cover him with his blanket. He would kick it off and declare that he didn’t want a blanket!

One night, in particular, this boy got up and said he wanted to ask a question, but his parents said no and firmly said to get back in bed. Then, he got up and said he wasn’t tired as he stifled a yawn.

The dad had had it up to his earlobes. But instead of raising his voice, he got up out of his recliner and walked over to his son.

The boy looked up at his Father and wondered if he was going to “get it.”

He took him by the hand and walked with him back to his room. He grabbed a blanket from a nearby chair, and upon reaching his son’s bed, he laid down on the floor beside it.

His son climbed up onto his bed and looked down at his dad. “Are you gonna sleep on the floor, Daddy?”

“Yes, son.”

“Oh!” He could hear the smile on the boy’s face, “Good!” The boy sounded relieved.

The little boy lay down in his bed and stayed there.

The Dad remembered when his son was just a toddler and how he would sit in the recliner next to the boy’s crib and hold his baby’s hand as he fell asleep.

The dad reached up to where his son had settled down and found his little hand. The boy grasped his dad’s hand like his life depended on it.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, bud?”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, son!”

And in no time at all, the little boy was enjoying peaceful sleep.

to my precious son,
– Caleb