If you've not taken a walk through the Old Testament, I highly encourage you to do so! I'm currently reading in my Daily Bible In Chronological Order 365 Daily Readings (NIV Version). I'm quite behind, still reading in January, but that's ok. Some days I don't read an entire day and some days I don't get to it at all. Before I would give up if I couldn't keep up, but its a journey, doesn't have to be perfect.
For a few years I've been studying the sabbath on and off. On the Israelites journey to the Promised Land the Lord commands them to observe the sabbath. This reading encouraged me to dig a little deeper and evaluate how I treat the sabbath.
The Lord commands we work 6 days and rest on the 7th. Now, there are arguments out there how and when the sabbath should be observed. As of right now our family chooses to take our sabbath on Sunday. Jesus said that sabbath was made for man, not man for sabbath so I believe that it is the Lord's gift to us. He created us after all and knows what we need more than we do.
With that in mind, we are continually making changes to our sabbath as we feel the Lord leading. Yesterday we chose to have a no media day and it was so very refreshing and relaxing. We didn't have TV, gaming systems or internet fighting for our attention. Instead we did the following:
*Rested in our rooms for 4 hours (the boys played for an hour in their room and then fell asleep for really long naps). I slept and then read for a little while. It was amazing! I couldn't believe that we took an entire afternoon and spent it in bed.
*Isaac got creative and made a treasure hunt for Dad and Kaleb to go on
*The boys talked Dad into doing a science experiment with them
*We finished out our evening by playing Pay Day
In addition, we've always included this in our sabbath rest:
*No housework (laundry, cleaning, etc)
*No projects for Jeff (mowing, home improvements, etc)
*Easy lunches (freezer meals or crock pot meals)
*Everyone takes naps or lays down with a movie of some sort
*Decline invites/activities that involve the entire day or creates a lot of driving so we can't get our rest in
I really enjoyed the simplicity and quietness of no media distractions. I think we might just keep this as part of our sabbath rest. We connected with the boys so much easier and they had a great evening with our undivided attention. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle my week now.
What do you do for Sabbath rest?
i love it! sounds so refreshing :)
ReplyDeletewe usually end up eating at one of our parents and maybe playing games - which is so nice to visit, but so tiring to not be at home and in sweats...i think we may have to be more intentional about rest time as a family (hard with an infant!!!)