Our family has been trying to be more intentional about "observing the Sabbath" and yesterday we were AWESOME at it. This Sabbath seeking began about a year ago. I can't remember why or how it came up but we have been trying to be more intentional about it ever since. The thing about Sabbathing (sorry about my neologism here, I don't think "sabbath-ing" is a word, but turning the noun into a verb just seems right) is that the Bible is completely vague about how to observe it. "Honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy" is commandment 4 in the list of 10. But God was way more specific when giving Moses instructions on how to build the Temple than He was giving instructions on how to honor & keep a Sabbath rest. Jump forward a bunch of years and we see that the Pharisees certainly couldn't get Sabbathing right either. Jesus had to put them in their places quite a few times when it came to abusing the idea of resting on the Sabbath. Jump forward a bunch MORE years and here sits the Read family of 5, trying to figure out just how we're supposed to Sabbath in these modern times. In the year or so since we've been intentionally Sabbathing, I think we've only been successful at it maybe 5 times. Ouch.
Which brings me to yesterday's awesome Sabbath WIN! It's not that we did anything amazingly different or even very spiritual. We just chose to (mostly) put aside our work and spend time together as a family. We watched cartoons and ate bacon for breakfast. We jumped on our new-to-us trampoline (thank you for the 2nd hand treasure Reeves family!) I finished a novel! We napped. We jumped on the trampoline some more. Daniel suggested we go to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner. (As we were getting ready to leave, I made up a song about this. The lyrics were "We're going out to eat! So mama doesn't have to cook & clean!" I taught Isaiah to sing it with me. It was fantastic.) There was a bit of work done. Daniel finished building a knife drawer for me to maximize my counter space. I had a stinky load of cloth diapers that REALLY needed to be washed. But I was pretty pleased with us- we mostly set aside our work in favor of playing with our kids and being present with each other.
I haven't asked him about this but my guess is that Sabbathing is harder for Daniel than it is for me. Since I'm home with the kids every day, my home projects are truly never done, making it easier to set aside. For Daniel, who leaves home and goes to work, only to come home and have other, different home projects to do, and less home time to complete them. I imagine that laying aside a perfectly good home project day for the purpose of resting is difficult. That may also be why we have only Sabbath-ed successfully a handful of times so far. There's just so much work to be done and not enough free time to do it. My point is that it makes me all the more grateful to him for leading our family by example and putting his own stuff aside to invest in his people.
You know what's funny about all of this? After having taken (almost) the entire day to rest, I should have felt more stressed about things being left undone. I should be feeling like today's work load has since doubled but in typical God fashion, I feel so refreshed! Having been given the freedom to set aside our work, sans guilt(!!), and purposefully spend time together as a family is so satisfyingly restful. I feel a deeper connection to Daniel today than I did yesterday. I feel a deeper commitment to my Jesus, to be about His business, to put aside my own comfort in order to seek His face and serve His people today.
I just feel renewed. Thanks for that Jesus, because as the Giver of good gifts, the gift of rest is a great one.
