Early To Rise Makes You Wise

There are few people who have not heard the common adage "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" (Benjamin Franklin). There are two things that strike me about this quote.

#1 Many have heard it, few practice it.

#2 Many strive to be healthy and wealthy but the most powerful of the three (becoming wise) receives very little attention.

It seems to me that the rewards we get for simply going to bed earlier and getting up earlier are amazingly much more grandiose than what is actually required of us to receive them. Yet...so many of us simply don't do it. What is so important that we must stay up just a little bit longer and which in turn makes us sleep a little bit later in the mornings? I recognize that there are definitely times where we might need to stay up but shouldn't it be the exception rather than the rule?

Let's now add to the confusion of that question and further wonder why in the world we're not doing it so that we can become wise! Being wise isn't just about acquiring or having knowledge. It is about having knowledge and knowing when, why, and how best to use that knowledge. I have knowledge about some things but I certainly don't always know when or how to use it. The wisest of us always thinks before acting, always ponders before responding, and rarely lives with regrets of what they should or shouldn't have said or done. Oh wisdom, why doest thou hide thy face from me? Where might I find thee?

Oh right! I must get up early and go to bed early and there I shall find thee waiting for me!

Oh....and one more thing. Though this adage has been popularly passed down from Benjamin Franklin to us, he is not the original architect of this intelligent advice. In D & C 88:124 the Lord states "...cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated." Now that is wisdom.