I don’t think there is a mother who doesn’t want to rest, am I right? Celebrating the Sabbath is a critical element in Christ-Centered Slow Living. I am so thankful that God requires us to slow down on the Sabbath! Here are 20 Ways To Celebrate The Sabbath!
The truth is that no matter what stage you are in as a mother, it is always hard to find time to rest. It is hard to get to bed on time and when you do, the chances are high that you will be woken up sometime in the night. Even during the day, it is hard to catch a moment to just sit down and have a cup of coffee! Moms somehow learn to function in “exhaustion mode”. It isn’t always pretty but we all learn how to do it to some extent.
Enter God…
His ways are perfect and as a tired mom, that is the most comforting of truths to embrace. You see it takes time and energy to think! To know that God has it all figured out for you and that His intentions are always good. Well now! Just the idea makes me feel peace washing over me. The fact that He wrote all the rules for successful living down out of his great love for us so that you and I could stay safe and experience His love is just AMAZING!!!
It is hard for me to understand why we as women have such a hard time embracing what we really need. What we really need to embrace is the Sabbath. It’s not only a day of rest but of true worship. We NEED this day to function, we need to step back a moment in awe and reverence and worship God. Worshiping God in spirit and in truth will rejuvenate you like no cup of coffee ever could. But somehow we are hesitant to embrace the truth of God’s Fourth Commandment. We seem to be able to see the importance of all the other Commandments but this one we sneak around.
The Fourth Commandment…
What do you think of when you contemplate
how to keep the Sabbath holy?
To be honest the picture that pops into my mind is a scene from The Little House on the Prairie Book Series. It was the tradition of the Ingalls family and many families of the 1800s to sit still all day, reading a book or the Bible. In the story, Laura a little girl at the time has to sit in a stiff straight-back chair each Sabbath and on one long Sunday she just can’t take it anymore and ends up being punished because she was unable to sit still all day. My heart goes out to little Laura. I am not sure I could do it either!
The Fourth Commandment states that we should “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-10
There are some keywords in this passage that I would like to look at so we can better understand what it truly means to keep the Sabbath holy.
Remember The Hebrew word for “remember” actually it means “set aside.”
Rest is the Hebrew word nuach which means repose, be quiet, have rest after labor.
Holy means set aside from all other days as special. The “Sabbath Day” rest is to be God-centered rest. Keep the day holy by keeping the focus on our Holy God.
Right now might be as good a time as any to let you know how I view the Bible. I believe it is the God-breathed truth, in other words, I believe that God wrote the Bible using divinely appointed and directed men and that it gives wisdom and direction for every single area of life. I don’t believe it is dated or old-fashioned. I believe that both the Old and New Testaments are equally true. I believe that it is true even when I personally have a hard time with what it is saying or if I have a hard time agreeing with it. I am not God and his ways are always perfect even if my tiny brain can’t wrap my mind around the Biblical truths He presents in His Word. I would be very slow to argue away something in God’s word as cultural and not relevant today.
As I have been continuing to learn about the Sabbath. It was helpful for me to look at what Jesus did on the Sabbath to keep it holy. We know in Matthew 5:17 that Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” We know he ate, taught, and healed the sick and we see that he rested. The life of Christ should be our guide with the words of scripture. By that statement, we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that He still thought the Ten Commandments were valid.
20 Ways To Celebrate The Sabbath
1. Put a special Sunday dinner in the crockpot the night before and turn it on as you leave for Church in the morning.
2. Attend Worship Service
3. Say no to activities on the Sabbath and yes (if you feel up to it) to fellowship with other believers.
4. Serve
5. Read the Bible or another Spiritually encouraging book.
6. Play a game with your family, like Bibleopoly or Scripture quiz bowl.
7. Go for a walk in God’s creation.
8. Unplug from technology.
9. Spend time with grandparents or aunts and uncles.
10. Take a nap.
11. Bring out special toys for the kids to play with only on the Sabbath.
12. Family meals.
13. Don’t do the dishes until sundown.
14. Sing or listen to music that leads you to worship God.
15. Eat your meal outside.
16. Light candles and use a nice tablecloth to eat your meal on.
17. Act out Bible stories
18. Take a bike ride.
19. Pray for missionaries.
20. Color Bible pages or use watercolors or oils to paint God’s creation.
Now, here is the hard part for me! In order to make the Sabbath Holy and rest, we have to do some PREPARATION.
I have prepared a Sabbath Checklist with just 6 “Things to Do”. The list is SIMPLE so please involve your children in the process of preparing for the most special day of the week. Many hands make light work!
YOUR TURN…
What do you do to make your Sabbath special?
Blessings,
I love this so much Janelle. I am just so blessed that we can connect ‘on line’ through our blogs!! Isn’t that just amazing? I had NO idea yo blogged, btw- and I swear it took me time to figure out it WAS you!!!! Just love this connection, and oh how I love your beautiful and convicting message here. Have you read Jen Hatmaker’s “7”? Your writing about the Sabbath reminds me of her book my women’s group is doing right now. If you can’t read it, then DO! It’s amazing.
i need to be much more intentional about this. I spend all day at church on Sundays- with the service and leading the teen ministry. I come home either preparing for a meal and the coming week, or I am often racing to a swim meet that Cassidy is in, or a soccer game in the spring or fall for Cade.
Sunday is far from the Sabbath day to me!! I need to be creative with this- our family needs to be more intentional about ‘planning’ our Sabbath together in honoring our God and RESTING.
Hmmm… still a challenge. BUT- grace for a new day tomorrow… perhaps we can pick a day each week that is ‘less busy’ and take a chunk out of that day for our bible/.downtime/rest/together time.
Work in progress over here!!!
Hi Chris…Thank you so much for your comment and encouragement! I don’t think the Bible says it has to be a Saturday or Sunday…Maybe your Sabbath is on Monday
BTW…I LOVE your blog!!
I believe the Word is specific about the sabbath being the 7th day. Our Creator kept the 7th day and called it holy in Genesis 1. Messiah kept the 7th day and it wasn’t until later that the Sunday law came into effect- because of “inconvenience” for the Romans.
I appreciate your insight and thoughts, Janelle. It does take a bit of forethought to handle meals ahead. I’m sure it’s even more difficult with children. (Even without children at home, I find I’ve often forgotten to prep something.)
I found you on a google search looking for ideas as I struggle with sitting still.
The Heavenly Father is merciful and patient with our weaknesses and difficulties, thankfully. It’s the attitude of our hearts and desire to obey that pleases Him. Our obedience in honoring His day is not only important, it’s His command “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy”. Shalom!
Hi Jenal,
I believe you are right about the Sabbath, I have always heard we celebrated the Sabbath because that is the day Jesus rose from the dead. It is something I need to study more about in the Bible and ask God for wisdom for. It’s a very good point! I am so glad you took the time to comment and I am so happy you found The Peaceful Haven!
I found you! I missed my calling as an internet sleuth.
We chatted the other day at the dance studio and I’m so glad I decided to look for you.
This is a great post. I try very hard to make the Sabbath a labor-free day, but I admit I have a hard time reconciling feeding my family with being entirely restful. I like your idea of using the crock pot. Food can be prepped the day before to put in the crock pot on Sunday. I often make a breakfast the night before to bake first thing. It’s often tempting to go out to lunch on Sunday after Mass, but we try to avoid doing anything that causes another person to have to labor harder than necessary. I long for the old days when stores were closed on Sunday and people spent the day visiting relatives, the elderly or sick, and even visited the cemetery to pray for the dead. Our Church tells us “Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.” I try to do something restful, and as making rosaries is a passion of mine, Sunday is a great day to do that…if only these pesky children would find something to do and leave me be!
Great food for thought here. So glad I found you.
Hi Barbara! I am so glad you found me and now in return I can also connect with you! You are a wonderful writer!! Thank you for your encouraging comment!
Visiting from Fellowship Fridays
I am so glad I found your post. I have been contemplating keeping Sundays for worship, reflection, and fellowship. I love you list of tips and will try to incorporate them into my Sundays. Thanks!
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for your comment! It is a process to be sure but I am so thankful you found the post helpful!!
I’m working really hard to adjust my schedule so I can do my harder work during the week and just do the fun stuff on the weekend. It’s been a slow process, but we’re getting there.
I think it is always a slow process when we make a change…keep up the good work! Thanks for stopping by!
Your blogs are such a blessing!
It is so difficult to set some time aside to rest… and yet so important. Thank you for your list of great ideas.
I find it so hard to set time to rest too Rolene…I am thankful God made this provision for us!
I see something truly special in this website!
Thank you so much Denise, I promise you it’s all God!
Enjoyed the post!
I’m so thankful you liked it, Charlotte!
I love this article on the Sabbath. I have been doing a lot of research on how to honor the sabbath but this article was so clear and concise it has really helped. Blessings.
Hi Donna,
I am so glad you found this article helpful. It’s been a transformative practice for me!
Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man…..not Jews only…..Jesus never kept Sunday……Do your research and ask God for understanding…..Sunday keeping is something God never taught and man has no authority to change it.
Thank you so much for your comment, Cheryl!
Thank you so much for ALL of your God-honoring guidance and encouragement and I so appreciate your many creative ideas, especially keeping A Sabbath Day to the Lord! It has troubled me for years and yet I always let taking care of family and other responsibilities I didn’t get done during the week creep into the day. If I trust Him to use my Bible/prayer/quiet time, I should be trusting Him to use the Sabbath day as well. Thank you and Happy New Year to you and all your family!
Hi Wendy,
I am so thankful you found the post helpful! Keeping the Sabbath has been life changing for me and my family! Sending many blessings your way!