Liz's Blog Family Faith Family Faith - The Sabbath , Part One
| Family Faith - The Sabbath , Part One |
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| Saturday, 28 June 2008 20:18 | |||||
Page 1 of 2 About fifteen months ago, my husband and I did some reading about the Sabbath. God created the Sabbath, a day of rest, for us and commanded us to keep it because as humans, we need that regular rest. We know, however, that we are not under the old law and in the same way the Israelites were commanded to. It is not a legalistic thing for us, but a blessing.Each Saturday we try to get the house clean in preparation for Sabbath, or "Resting Day" as we call it. At dinner time on Saturday we light a candle and our day of rest begins. We have a special meal and Saturday night is the one night of the week we regularly have dessert. The kids go to bed and Saturday evening is "date night" for my husband and I. Our computers are turned off for Sabbath and we don't do any housework except for the most basic, necessary tasks (clearing dirty dishes off the table, for example). We go to Church on a Sunday morning and spend the rest of the day together. We try to do things we enjoy such as meals with friends, a trip to the library, playing board games or going on a picnic. While the house is not always tidy, the day is free from the expectation and, therefore, burden of housework. Our Resting Day continues until the end of dinner on Sunday night, when we blow the candle out and begin preparing for the week ahead. We have a had Resting Days that have turned out to not be very restful. There have been times when we have chosen to sacrifice half an hour of our Resting Day to complete a household chore that would create more stress or significantly more work if not completed promptly. Sometimes one of us parents will get up early to allow the other to have a lie in, even though getting up early is not restful for the one doing it. As time has gone on, though, we are finding a better balance of what we need at this stage of our life as a family. As we grow into the next stage of life, our needs for our Day of Rest will change, and we will have to be prepared to change our Resting Day along with them. For the moment, this is how our family celebrates a Day of Rest. Here is a post off my old blog, written 31st January, 2007, on the subject. |
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