The old-timers went to bed with the chickens at sundown real time and got up with the rooster's crowing at sunrise.

The rooster is God's natural alarm clock. Now, folks try to stay up half the night watching the one-eyed monster or as one preacher calls it, "The 21-inch sewer system." I wear my remote out trying to find something to watch. Then I think to myself, "What in the world are you doing? You need to use this time more wisely."

How true, I tell myself. We need to be good stewards over not only our money and possessions but also our time. Oh, I know some will ask, "Well, just what do you do for fun?" As a matter of fact, I love to do what I am doing right now. Writing spiri- tual articles. I also love to do nursing home services, to minister to them in word and in song, and also entertain them.

I tell them I came to bring them some of God's medicine. In Proverbs 17:22, it says that a merry heart doeth good like a fine medicine. It's good for the heart and then it says that a

sad spirit dries up the bones. I don't know about you but I don't want any dry bones that will break, but I do want a strong heart.

I read a medical article in Time magazine and it said that doctors have just now discovered that laughter and humor are good for you. I thought, "Duh!" It's been in the Bible for thousands of years and they are just now realizing it and by the way, "They ain't discovered nothing." Someone asked me if God has a sense of humor. I said, "Yes, of course. Look at the giraffe."

I don't know how I got from there to here, but it was fun anyway.

Getting back to staying up half the night. The Bible teaches that all of God's creation needs rest. Even the land. The Bible teaches that we should let the land rest ever so often and not plant anything on it. In this modern day a lot of land is mighty tired because they never let it rest.

When I was just a child I remember this elderly man who went to bed right at sundown and the next morning right at sunrise you could hear him hollering to his old mule as he was plowing a garden for us.

Old Ben Franklin said something that is still good advice: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise." Oh well, I don't know about the wealthy part, but it's got to be good for you. Can you say amen?