Have you ever noticed how people are different? Of course I know there are gazillions of differences between people. But, consider a very mundane, but personally relevant, distinction – Morning People and Night People. I have conducted a non‐scientific survey of many couples who are paired together in marriage even though they fall on the opposite ends of what I will call the “clock spectrum”. In other words, it seems that often Morning People are married to Night People and that these marriages are successful despite this fundamental difference between the partners.

Case in point: My Beloved Husband (a Morning Person) and Me (a Night Person). My Husband will arise no later than 6:30 a.m. whether he needs to do so just because it is the morning and that is when you should get up! He LOVES the sunrise – He loves to stand on the porch, listen to the birds awaken and then hear them serenade the sun as it comes up over the trees while he drinks his cup of coffee that he brewed before the sun lit the way to the coffee pot!   I don’t know what all he does between when he gets up and when he wakes me up just before he leaves the house … I’m asleep! By the time I am aware of anything, he has been up for hours.

Getting up that early is simply foreign to me. I can get up early if I have a meeting in the morning; in fact  I am more than capable of getting up at 6:30 a.m., washing, dressing, getting papers together, doing the breakfast thing, and getting out the door to get to the meeting, even with time to spare. I certainly won’t like it, but I can do it. But, if there is no deadline staring at me, I would be content to continue resting until …. Well, we really don’t need to state an actual time; suffice it to say that it would be past 6:30 a.m., that’s for sure.

At the other end of the “clock spectrum”, I love looking at the moon and the night sky. When we are camping, I can sit outside with a cup of decaf and look to the heavens watching the stars for hours … Night, now that’s my time of day.

How that plays out on a day‐to‐day basis in our home, for example, is something like this. We will be watching television and my husband will have fallen asleep in the recliner about 10:00 p.m. I, on the other hand will be knitting or reading recipes while watching the 11:00 p.m. news. When the news is over, I will get him to bed and then do some work on the computer, or read, or continue knitting, or do whatever else is beckoning, but it will be at least midnight and more likely 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. before I am ready to sleep.

We have tried to “normalize” our time schedules by my awaking at 7:30 and his “sleeping in” to 7:30 but it doesn’t change anything at the end of the day. He is still asleep in the recliner at 10:00 p.m. and I am still awake at 12:00 a.m.

Simply put, he is a Morning Person and I am a Night Person – there is no way around it. He explains that he had a paper route when he was a child so he had to get up early. I don’t have any other explanation, but his paper route was over 50 years ago … I don’t buy it!

Interestingly, we are not the only ones. I have spoken to many others and more people than not tell me that they, too, are involved in “mixed marriages” – night and morning people are united in the holy bonds of matrimony! We are like this for some other reason.

Is this an example of God’s sense of humor?  Perhaps.

In fact, I have made that comment in the past. But upon reflection and leadership of the Spirit, I expect God is doing something much more important here.

What if this is God’s way of providing each marriage partner some “sacred time” – a time when they can focus on being with God while not taking away time from their partner?   Wouldn’t it be just like God to, in His sovereign grace, give us a partner who checks out physically at a time when we are still awake, or who remains asleep when we awaken, so that we can have time to meditate and “be still and know” that He is God, even while we hear the steady, comforting breathing of the one God has given to us as our mate?

Whether it is in the morning or at night, if your spouse is asleep and you are awake, why not spend that “alone” time with your Lord? After all, He is the Bridegroom Who has given His Life for you and Who has an everlasting Love for you. Perhaps His plan in uniting you with your opposite Morning/Night Person was to create some free time in your schedule so you could spend quality time with the Creator of the Universe. If He created the opportunity for this appointment with you, don’t waste it!

Cherish it and let Him fill your Soul, Beloved.

[If you want to “take part” in my non-scientific survey, let me know in a comment whether you are a Night or Morning person … and, if you are married, whether your spouse is the same or different!  If you just agree with the thoughts, hit the Like button and there is no need for further comment!  Remember, it really makes no difference because we are all loved by our Savior and He created us to be as we are! Thanks.]