Sabbath Keeping

Sabbath-keeping is hard. It takes work to have a day of rest. On Saturday we try to make sure everyone's clothes are out and ready, the house is clean, the diapers are washed and that we have food ready for lunch after church (during the winter, we made soup to have in the slow cooker so that it would be ready when we got home--and we would try to invite people over). But we've decided that we want to be intentional about making the Sabbath different for us.

Earlier this week, Anders and I were reading a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods. Laura was complaining about their Sundays and how they weren't fun because they couldn't do anything. Then Pa told her a story about when her grandfather was a kid and they had to spend the whole afternoon sitting and working on their catechism (which sounds like work to me)--so it was much better off for her than it used to be.

Part of the Sabbath struggle is honoring it without falling into legalism. And what's good for one person on the Sabbath, may not be good for another. I think the spirit of the Sabbath is in making it a different day--a day where you don't do your usual thing--especially anything vocational. Rest time is important (especially with two little boys in the house). We try to do things as a family--sometimes with others, too, but always things we can do together. Like going for a walk or a bike ride or even cuddling on the couch with an old Disney movie.

Then [Jesus] said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." - Mark 2:27