In my last blog post, I shared what my work schedule looks like for the week and I mentioned that I took Sunday and Monday off as family and personal Sabbath days, respectively. What does this mean?
There are so many brilliant books, articles, and references about observing the Sabbath; the best of them being the Bible, naturally. One of my favorite verses from the New Testament, “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’” (Mark 2:27) tells us that God created us to be restful. It’s not just a day where you don’t work or don’t leave your home. It’s a day of celebration, for all the things our Father has already done. It’s a day of trust, an intentional mindset of “I don’t have to try to squeeze in extra work today, because I trust the Lord to guide me through the week”. Yes, it’s a day of rest, but not just physical; we’re resting mentally and physically on a spiritual level. The Sabbath is a day to lean into our Father’s embrace and recharge so that we can work out of our rest for the week ahead, rather than working in order to rest.
I could write an entire (very long) post on what I’ve learned about the Sabbath and what it means to me, but my heart for this post is to share how we spend our family Sabbath day, which happens to fall on Sunday. This doesn’t have much to do with the fact that we attend church, but it’s the day that Chris and I both are off so we want to honor our time together.
After church, we swing by the grocery store to pick out our “Sabbath dessert”. We relax for the rest of the day before dinner and then it’s breakfast-for-dinner style. I don’t know about you, but there’s something profoundly comforting about eating breakfast for dinner. While we eat, we ask each other what we’re grateful for this past week. We even ask Layla, whose answer ranges anywhere from “Mommy/Daddy” to a more vague “Two!”, to which we respond, “Oh, you like being two? That’s great!” It’s important to us that we include her as much as possible, not discounting her because of her age. We’re trying to plant seeds after all!
After dinner, we make/serve our chosen dessert. We typically watch a family movie while we enjoy our treat and then we relax a bit more before calling it a night. This has become our weekly family routine for Sabbath (minus holidays and special celebrations) and I look forward to it each week. I know at the end of our rest, I will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the week.
Do you celebrate and observe a Sabbath during your week? If yes, do you feel recharged for the rest of your week? If you don’t have a Sabbath day, why not? Is it a matter of beliefs? You don’t have to be a Christian to make time for intentional rest each week. I’ll say it again, friends, you were made for so much more than go, go, go.
