Sabbath- From Good to Better Series
It all began over Door County cherry stuffed french toast on a late Sunday morning in July. My husband and I were on the last day of a long weekend away with old college friends. We’d had many lighthearted conversations over the course of the past few days, but this topic was different, our friend’s began sharing about how they had begun to practice a thing called "Sabbath”.
Now let me stop here and say, if you don’t come from a religious background, or even if you do, the word Sabbath probably isn’t a common word in your vocabulary. For me the word felt uncomfortable, outdated, maybe a little too “churchy” and layered. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the concept of Sabbath and never really had.
I knew Sabbath was meant to be a day of rest and something I’d occasionally try to check off the “How to Be a Good Christian” list by sitting on the couch with my husband to cheer on the Packers for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. For me, if Sabbath rest was optional, convenient, and brief then Go Pack Go and onto the next thing.
As our friends continued to share their experience with us, God was beginning something new in us. In the weeks that followed, my husband and I began to process this concept of Sabbath together. We researched it, listened to podcasts and teachings, asked others about it, prayed, and found ourselves not only drawn to it, but anxious to “try it out”.
We wondered if we had a discovered a missing part of our faith journey and if a new level of rest and joy might be hidden within. Maybe it was a gift from God that we had simply tossed aside.
If you have been following my blog series From Good to Better, this month my focus has been on Spirituality so exploring this thing called Sabbath was a natural fit. By summer's end, it was something we intended to embark on either way as a family.
There are a handful of reasons why we have decided to begin to practice Sabbath, but the most compelling for us was found in the age old story of Creation at the very beginning of the Bible.
Genesis 2:3 “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”
As many times as we had read the creation story, this was the first time we really stopped and thought about the fact that God purposely built rest into the fabric of creation. We were struck by the fact that sabbath isn’t just another Old Testament Law or thing to do, but it’s so much more than that.
Rest is a part of who we were created to be and God (who didn’t NEED to rest that day) took the time and made it a point to MODEL that for us in the creation story. God modeling rest on the 7th day was for our benefit.
Work, create, explore, build and accomplish for 6 days, but on the 7th day, STOP, rest, reflect, refuel and enjoy. Not only is this good for your soul and necessary for your body’s function, it's healthy for your faith as well.
If you were to ask me why I haven’t regularly practiced sabbath up to this point, I would ironically tell you that I am too busy to rest. That to truly take a “day off” would result in unmade meals, a house undone, and my family temporarily falling apart. I am needed, I make things happen, and I hold it all together in my own strength and effort.
Where in the Christian life, does that leave any room for God's provision?
I realized that by making the claim I didn't have time for Sabbath, I was ultimately saying to God “I don’t really trust that you’ll provide all 7 days without my effort."
Glyniss Whitwer describes it beautifully in her article 'Did you Know Rest is both a Gift and a Commandment?' which reads:
“The reason God always wants us to honor the Sabbath is we still need to learn to trust Him. Because the depth of our relationships is equivalent to the degree we trust the other person. This is true with every person in our lives, and it’s definitely true with God. We can only go as deep as we trust.
What a beautiful, loving way for God to teach living by faith — by asking people who have worked nonstop to rest. God did it then, and He does it today.”
Our process of figuring out how to actually implement Sabbath has been just that, a process. This weekend will be our 14th attempt and it’s not a perfect, one fits all formula that I sometimes wish it was. We have tried many different things, some we liked, some not as much. For now, we seem to have settled on a few, somewhat flexible, Sabbath guidelines that work well for our family.
* We begin Sabbath on Friday evening at dinner and end just before dinner on Saturday. (Yes, an entire 24 hours!)
* We don’t do anything that feels like work during that time and we prepare all our food beforehand. (example: We don't wash dishes during Sabbath so we make sure to have paper products on hand and start with an empty dishwasher so the counter doesn't pile up with dishes)
* We turn OFF our phones and electronics during that time.
* No fighting, complaining, or arguing during Sabbath. (which also includes Dad and Mom)
* We indulge and enjoy great tasting food during Sabbath. (Nutrition goes out the window for 24 hours which if you know me, is a big deal.)
* A typical Sabbath Friday looks like making a meal plan, running to the grocery store, and prepping whatever food we have planned for meals. We also tend to pick up the house so we can relax without a mess.
* We try to make the table feel a little more inviting by using a tablecloth and "fancy" stemware and make a family favorite for dinner. ("Snack dinner" has been a hit which consists of things like cheese and crackers, hummus and chips, taco dip, etc.)
*My husband and I open a bottle of wine and the kids drink sparkling juice. (Our kids LOVE to "Cheers" over and over throughout this meal)
We begin the meal by lighting a candle which we keep burning throughout Sabbath to remind us of God’s presence and promise. Next, we take communion as a family which is something we have always thought about doing but never really took the initiative to do so. After that, we dig in and try to have meaningful and fun conversation with the kids, and finally, a Sabbath meal always ends with a delicious dessert.
After dinner we spend some time playing a game together as a family and then the kids get a special and much longer than usual tuck in time with Mom and Dad where we tell them what we love about them, ways we are proud of them, and then pray with them. We try to make it especially meaningful.
After the kids are in bed, Paul and I often just stare at each other. Just kidding. The first Sabbath night we actual did though! In all the preparation and excitement of our first Sabbath night, we came downstairs after tucking our kids in and realized Netflix and scrolling wasn't an option and both kind of froze.
Eventually we ended up in a silly conversation, trying to remember the lyrics to an old Backstreet Boy song, unable to use our phones to prove the other person wrong. We genuinely laughed together for the first time in while. Sabbath has restored silliness in our relationship which tends to slip away in the stress of the day to day.
We've also made a habit of heading to “bed” early on Sabbath nights and I have learned that I sleep a hundred times more soundly without my phone in the room. (You're welcome, for that blinding flash of the obvious.)
Saturday morning we let the kids play on their Kindles which is a treat for them while we sleep in. We usually have a special breakfast ready to go and take our time making our coffee and tea as we lounge around.
After breakfast we have a family time where we introduce a new verse we plan to memorize over the week together, talk about what it means, and then watch a worship song of some sort. We have also started focusing on a character trait and discuss it's meaning with our kids along with a strategy of how we will try to implement that into our upcoming week.
After our family time, we spend some personal quiet time with God. Our kids use journals where they often choose to write down the new verse or make a list of prayer requests or things they are thankful for.
The rest of the morning is pretty relaxed. The kids play and we try to do things that are life giving which looks different for each of us. For example, I almost always will choose to go on a run while for my husband that is the complete opposite of restful. We read, we chat, sometimes this is when I catch coffee out with a friend.
Saturday afternoons we often go out and do something as a family. When it was warmer, we would go on a hike or play at the park. Lately, with winter on its way, we usually explore a new coffee shop which we all really enjoy. The kids love to pick out a “treat” and bring along their latest favorite game.
I should also mention that practicing Sabbath does not mean we no longer hang out with people on the weekends. Our basic rule of thumb that we ask when deciding to do things on Sabbath is: Is it restful and is it worship? If we can answer those two questions with a YES, we go for it. We've taken some of our Friday evenings and gone out with friends or hung out with our neighbors around a campfire. Sabbath isn't a restrictive thing for us, it's actually really freeing.
We are always sad to wrap up Sabbath come Saturday evening and get back to real life (and a stack of dishes) but it’s become such a highlight of the week for all of us. It's not unusual for one of the kids to ask how much longer until Sabbath by about half way through our week. We have grown to crave it and anticipate it.
Sabbath for us, has far exceeded our expectations on multiple levels. All five of us long for it, look forward to it, and thoroughly enjoy it....
Our “work” each week is never left undone.
Sabbath has caused us to turn our phones off, being fully available to one another and setting the example for our kids and ourselves that life doesn’t always have to revolve around our devices.
Sabbath has opened up a door for our family to try some of the “good things” that we had always intended to do with our kids but never got around to doing (like memorizing verses, playing games together, taking communion as a family).
Sabbath has given our family the gift of rest.
We pray that this decision we have made as a family, to "Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy" will have long-term effects on our kid’s faith journey as well as our own.
* If you are interested in learning more about what practicing Sabbath might practically look like for your family, we found Bridgetown Church in Portland to have some incredible messages along with practical resources to get you started. Click HERE for the link.
Now let me stop here and say, if you don’t come from a religious background, or even if you do, the word Sabbath probably isn’t a common word in your vocabulary. For me the word felt uncomfortable, outdated, maybe a little too “churchy” and layered. I wasn’t really sure what to do with the concept of Sabbath and never really had.
I knew Sabbath was meant to be a day of rest and something I’d occasionally try to check off the “How to Be a Good Christian” list by sitting on the couch with my husband to cheer on the Packers for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. For me, if Sabbath rest was optional, convenient, and brief then Go Pack Go and onto the next thing.
As our friends continued to share their experience with us, God was beginning something new in us. In the weeks that followed, my husband and I began to process this concept of Sabbath together. We researched it, listened to podcasts and teachings, asked others about it, prayed, and found ourselves not only drawn to it, but anxious to “try it out”.
We wondered if we had a discovered a missing part of our faith journey and if a new level of rest and joy might be hidden within. Maybe it was a gift from God that we had simply tossed aside.
If you have been following my blog series From Good to Better, this month my focus has been on Spirituality so exploring this thing called Sabbath was a natural fit. By summer's end, it was something we intended to embark on either way as a family.
There are a handful of reasons why we have decided to begin to practice Sabbath, but the most compelling for us was found in the age old story of Creation at the very beginning of the Bible.
Genesis 2:3 “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”
As many times as we had read the creation story, this was the first time we really stopped and thought about the fact that God purposely built rest into the fabric of creation. We were struck by the fact that sabbath isn’t just another Old Testament Law or thing to do, but it’s so much more than that.
Rest is a part of who we were created to be and God (who didn’t NEED to rest that day) took the time and made it a point to MODEL that for us in the creation story. God modeling rest on the 7th day was for our benefit.
Work, create, explore, build and accomplish for 6 days, but on the 7th day, STOP, rest, reflect, refuel and enjoy. Not only is this good for your soul and necessary for your body’s function, it's healthy for your faith as well.
If you were to ask me why I haven’t regularly practiced sabbath up to this point, I would ironically tell you that I am too busy to rest. That to truly take a “day off” would result in unmade meals, a house undone, and my family temporarily falling apart. I am needed, I make things happen, and I hold it all together in my own strength and effort.
Where in the Christian life, does that leave any room for God's provision?
I realized that by making the claim I didn't have time for Sabbath, I was ultimately saying to God “I don’t really trust that you’ll provide all 7 days without my effort."
Glyniss Whitwer describes it beautifully in her article 'Did you Know Rest is both a Gift and a Commandment?' which reads:
“The reason God always wants us to honor the Sabbath is we still need to learn to trust Him. Because the depth of our relationships is equivalent to the degree we trust the other person. This is true with every person in our lives, and it’s definitely true with God. We can only go as deep as we trust.
What a beautiful, loving way for God to teach living by faith — by asking people who have worked nonstop to rest. God did it then, and He does it today.”
Our process of figuring out how to actually implement Sabbath has been just that, a process. This weekend will be our 14th attempt and it’s not a perfect, one fits all formula that I sometimes wish it was. We have tried many different things, some we liked, some not as much. For now, we seem to have settled on a few, somewhat flexible, Sabbath guidelines that work well for our family.
* We begin Sabbath on Friday evening at dinner and end just before dinner on Saturday. (Yes, an entire 24 hours!)
* We don’t do anything that feels like work during that time and we prepare all our food beforehand. (example: We don't wash dishes during Sabbath so we make sure to have paper products on hand and start with an empty dishwasher so the counter doesn't pile up with dishes)
* We turn OFF our phones and electronics during that time.
* No fighting, complaining, or arguing during Sabbath. (which also includes Dad and Mom)
* We indulge and enjoy great tasting food during Sabbath. (Nutrition goes out the window for 24 hours which if you know me, is a big deal.)
* A typical Sabbath Friday looks like making a meal plan, running to the grocery store, and prepping whatever food we have planned for meals. We also tend to pick up the house so we can relax without a mess.
* We try to make the table feel a little more inviting by using a tablecloth and "fancy" stemware and make a family favorite for dinner. ("Snack dinner" has been a hit which consists of things like cheese and crackers, hummus and chips, taco dip, etc.)
*My husband and I open a bottle of wine and the kids drink sparkling juice. (Our kids LOVE to "Cheers" over and over throughout this meal)
We begin the meal by lighting a candle which we keep burning throughout Sabbath to remind us of God’s presence and promise. Next, we take communion as a family which is something we have always thought about doing but never really took the initiative to do so. After that, we dig in and try to have meaningful and fun conversation with the kids, and finally, a Sabbath meal always ends with a delicious dessert.
After dinner we spend some time playing a game together as a family and then the kids get a special and much longer than usual tuck in time with Mom and Dad where we tell them what we love about them, ways we are proud of them, and then pray with them. We try to make it especially meaningful.
After the kids are in bed, Paul and I often just stare at each other. Just kidding. The first Sabbath night we actual did though! In all the preparation and excitement of our first Sabbath night, we came downstairs after tucking our kids in and realized Netflix and scrolling wasn't an option and both kind of froze.
Eventually we ended up in a silly conversation, trying to remember the lyrics to an old Backstreet Boy song, unable to use our phones to prove the other person wrong. We genuinely laughed together for the first time in while. Sabbath has restored silliness in our relationship which tends to slip away in the stress of the day to day.
We've also made a habit of heading to “bed” early on Sabbath nights and I have learned that I sleep a hundred times more soundly without my phone in the room. (You're welcome, for that blinding flash of the obvious.)
Saturday morning we let the kids play on their Kindles which is a treat for them while we sleep in. We usually have a special breakfast ready to go and take our time making our coffee and tea as we lounge around.
After breakfast we have a family time where we introduce a new verse we plan to memorize over the week together, talk about what it means, and then watch a worship song of some sort. We have also started focusing on a character trait and discuss it's meaning with our kids along with a strategy of how we will try to implement that into our upcoming week.
After our family time, we spend some personal quiet time with God. Our kids use journals where they often choose to write down the new verse or make a list of prayer requests or things they are thankful for.
The rest of the morning is pretty relaxed. The kids play and we try to do things that are life giving which looks different for each of us. For example, I almost always will choose to go on a run while for my husband that is the complete opposite of restful. We read, we chat, sometimes this is when I catch coffee out with a friend.
Saturday afternoons we often go out and do something as a family. When it was warmer, we would go on a hike or play at the park. Lately, with winter on its way, we usually explore a new coffee shop which we all really enjoy. The kids love to pick out a “treat” and bring along their latest favorite game.
I should also mention that practicing Sabbath does not mean we no longer hang out with people on the weekends. Our basic rule of thumb that we ask when deciding to do things on Sabbath is: Is it restful and is it worship? If we can answer those two questions with a YES, we go for it. We've taken some of our Friday evenings and gone out with friends or hung out with our neighbors around a campfire. Sabbath isn't a restrictive thing for us, it's actually really freeing.
We are always sad to wrap up Sabbath come Saturday evening and get back to real life (and a stack of dishes) but it’s become such a highlight of the week for all of us. It's not unusual for one of the kids to ask how much longer until Sabbath by about half way through our week. We have grown to crave it and anticipate it.
Sabbath for us, has far exceeded our expectations on multiple levels. All five of us long for it, look forward to it, and thoroughly enjoy it....
Our “work” each week is never left undone.
Sabbath has caused us to turn our phones off, being fully available to one another and setting the example for our kids and ourselves that life doesn’t always have to revolve around our devices.
Sabbath has opened up a door for our family to try some of the “good things” that we had always intended to do with our kids but never got around to doing (like memorizing verses, playing games together, taking communion as a family).
Sabbath has given our family the gift of rest.
We pray that this decision we have made as a family, to "Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy" will have long-term effects on our kid’s faith journey as well as our own.
* If you are interested in learning more about what practicing Sabbath might practically look like for your family, we found Bridgetown Church in Portland to have some incredible messages along with practical resources to get you started. Click HERE for the link.
I like this idea! Maybe we will have to try it.
ReplyDelete