My interest in this subject was sparked by an interview I saw on Good Morning America regarding the use of cognitive behavioral therapy in treating insomnia.  For years, I have struggled to get a good nights sleep.  I have tried many different solutions including sleeping pills and herbal formulas.

I did not read the book from cover to cover but read sections that seemed applicable to my situation.  I read it with great anticipation based on the claim that cognitive behavioral therapy has proven to be even more successful at treating insomnia than other alternatives each of which seem to have some serious side effects.

I was not disappointed.  While I cannot say that it was a miracle turn around, I would say I have been able to take my sleep situation from a 5 to an 8 in a short time simply by using some of the simple principles found in this book.

One of the things I had to come to grips with was that different people require different amounts of sleep.  I will probably never be a person who gets or needs 8 hours of sleep.  In fact if I can get 6 to 6.5 hours of restful sleep I am good to go.  That took some of the pressure off of the situation.

I then began to use a technique that the author calls sleep restriction which is simple restricting my time in bed to the amount of sleep I need which is about 6 hours or so.  I eliminated any napping during the day and began going to bed at 11.  I used to go to bed at 10:30 or even 10 some nights thinking that if I was in bed longer I would get more sleep.  It just did not work for me.  The sleep restriction has.  Actually, Dr. Silberman recommends restricting your sleep even more until you get a very restful sleep and then adding 15 minutes a night until you make it to your optimum time.

Another suggestion that has worked, is to simply get up if I wake up during the night and do something like read until I am sleepy again.  The key to making this work is that you cannot look at the clock.  I used to look at what time I woke up and went back to sleep and then the next day think about how much sleep I had lost.

I would love to be able to say that I am sleeping great every night and have experienced a miracle turn around.  I have not but the improvement I have seen in less than a week is well worth the time to read the book.

God is amazing! We surpassed our all time high attendance today with 215 in attendance.  One of our members told me the other day that when he started attending that if you had told him you could get 200 people to attend a church meeting in an old building (which they share with another church) on a dead end street, he would not have believed it.  He does now.

We had our all time high attendance (other than Easter) on Sunday with 205 in attendance.  I continue to be totally amazed at what God is doing at FOTP Grapevine.  The people that he continues to bring who have a heart for others as well as the hurting people who are finding hope there.  I am so very blessed to get to be a part of it all.  To think that 20 months ago, we were just a small group meeting in my living room and to see where it is today, helps me know that God has only just begun to take us where he wants us to go.

Mark Batterson is definitely one of my favorite authors.  When I finish one of his books, virtually every page has many sections underlined.  In fact, the biggest challenge is to digest all that is coming at you.

In Primal Batterson says it is time for a new Reformation.  This reformation is not about creeds but rather it is about deeds.  It is a movement based on being great at the Great Commandment – “You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

He begins the book by looking at how the Romans had a habit of building things on top of things.  An emperor might tear down a predecessor’s palace and build his own palace on top of it.  He thin poses this assertion:   “I wonder, almost like the Roman effect of building things on top of things, if the accumulated layers of Christian traditions and institutions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath.”

Batterson then devotes the book to looking at the four primal elements detailed in the Great Commandment:

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion.

The soul of Christianity is primal wonder.

The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity.

The strength of Christianity is primal energy.

He sees the problem with Christianity is that we are not good at the Great Commandment.  The solution is simply to become great at the Great Commandment. The book is that simple and yet it is filled with interesting facts, stories and insights that make it a joy to read.