A long busy week preceded a particular Saturday when all I wanted was to stay home and do pretty much nothing. Slated to serve in the church nursery on Sunday and a family outing planned later that same day, I knew I wasn’t going to get any rest unless I took Saturday completely off. I worked hard on Friday afternoon to get all urgent chores and errands completed so I didn’t have to worry about them for the rest of the week. However, my husband, who runs an auto repair shop, asked if I would run for some parts he needed. Then, a friend texted to see if we could set up a play date for our sons. Completely overwhelmed, I kindly said, “No.” Thankfully, my husband didn’t need the parts so urgently and my friend understood. Phew!
Have you had a week like that? Or, maybe you’ve had a month like that and you don’t see an end to the busyness. So easily we slip into the sin of being over-busy!
The reality is, the pace of American culture cleverly blankets the sin of not keeping the sabbath day holy.
What is the Sabbath and Why Keep it Holy?
When God created the world, he created more than just the physical realm. He also created the spiritual realm.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
Genesis 1:26a (ESV)
God made man in his image, not just physically, but also in personality, morality, and spirituality, according to David Guzik. He also shares that while our physical bodies are an appropriate vessel for God’s spirit, our being made in his image and likeness, is more about the spirituality and character traits of God.
In addition, God set aside a whole day for spiritual rest.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 2:3 (ESV)
How to Find Sabbath Rest
I don’t believe we need to find Sabbath rest on the “seventh day”. No one can even agree what the seventh day is. Saturday? Sunday? However, finding one day each week to rest is important. But what does rest actually mean?
For some people, like myself, rest is finding a day to do absolutely nothing. I don’t like to make a lot of plans to go places or be with others every week. Having plans is just not restful for me. I would rather lay around the house, watch a movie, read a book, do a craft…you get the idea. However, I have a family, so I need to be flexible as well. Maybe my son wants to do something with me–I need to honor what is restful to him too.
A note to parents: Leaning on giving kids screens all day so that you can rest is really tempting. I struggle with this in a hard way. I’ve read a lot of research that shows the negative effects screens can have on children if not kept in moderation. I know first-hand, especially having an only child, how hard it is to not let technology entertain our kids endlessly, but please try.
Rest is defined differently from family to family. For some, a day at a theme park is just what you need. Great! (While I find theme parks fun, that would exhaust me more). While I generally prefer to remain home on my day of rest, doing a low-key activity like going to the beach with friends is something I enjoy occasionally. The key is, finding pastimes that will rejuvenate you so that you can joyfully attack the day-to-day of the rest of the week.
Taking time to rest often means letting go and not achieving every little goal for the week. A big part of taking a day off is planning well the rest of the week. If I have a list of chores that need to get done, as I alluded to earlier, I make a point to accomplish them the rest of the week. Sometimes that means making a list, then crossing off those that are realistically not going to get done that week and making plans to do them at a future date. You need to prioritize rest among your to-do list.
The Ten Commandments Aren’t A License for Legalism
While I mentioned before that not keeping the Sabbath Day holy is a sin, we also need to take care not to fall into legalism, which can be just as bad. This is what the Jews did to Jesus when they tried to trip Jesus up in his words and cause him to sin. They got hung up on “tradition,” or rules made up and passed down through generations, rather than what God’s Law actually said. To say that a day of rest needs to look a certain way is a sure path to legalism.
Jesus died to set us free from the law rather than to cement us into the law. He did acknowledge the importance of keeping the Ten Commandments, but we aren’t bound to the Laws of Moses like our Jewish predecessors.
“Though we are free from the legal obligation of the Sabbath, we dare not ignore the importance of a day of rest. God has built us so we need one,” says Guzik.
The reality is, our mental health is much improved by taking time off every week. However, for example, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do a load of dishes on your day of rest so that you have clean things to eat from. That said, I do try to enter into my day of rest with an empty dishwasher, or at the very least a clean one, just to make my day more enjoyable. Dishes are one chore that I find particularly stressful. We can’t make “laws” for ourselves in order to obey the third commandment.
However you plan your day of rest can only be determined by you. The important thing is valuing rest for the sake of your mental health and prioritizing having a Sabbath Day each week. However, don’t overthink your definition of rest and become legalistic.
Are you consistent about prioritizing a day of rest each week? If not, what is one practical step you can make today to create a Sabbath Day this week?
Bethany Marinelli is an author and speaker out of Orlando, Florida. She also supports her husband, Andrew, in his auto repair business and homeschools her son, Arthur.
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