To Sabbath or Not to Sabbath

The Sabbath.

You know, that day each week where we are meant to rest?

God did.

Figure we should too.

But it somehow doesn't seem that clear cut.

As Christians, we try to live by the "ten cool rules" as Munchkin's learning in kids church.  Don't lie, don't steal, etc, etc, etc.  One of them is to Keep the Sabbath Holy.  I've noticed that in our society, that rule is very easy to overlook.  After all, we live by grace now, right?  Jesus died so we don't have to scrabble around trying to fulfill a law book that is way beyond our wildest hopes of ever achieving.  But, he never said he was ditching the law.  In fact, when asked what's most important, he said to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (quoting from the Old Testament) and to love your neighbour as yourself.  All the law and the prophets 'hang' on these two, according to Jesus.  Hmm.  Find myself thinking that he might have been meaning that if our heart motivation is to love God and love people, then we will probably find ourselves doing all the other laws anyhow.

So, back to the Sabbath.  The Sabbath has been a rule I've thought about quite a bit on and off, kept diligently for short periods, but largely ignored.  But I keep coming back to it.  It must be important.  It's included beside "don't murder" for goodness sake!  It FEELS important.  Having just done over six months without a weekly rest day, I'm worn out.  I'm frazzled.  I want a rest.  I want a holiday.  I want, I want, I want.  I NEED a Sabbath!

Back in 2012 we were very particular about having our Sabbath.  Between us, Boyo and I worked and/or studied (frequently both in the same day!) six days a week.  But on Saturday, we didn't.  I don't honestly remember what we DID do on Saturdays.  Probably not much at all, considering how busy the rest of our lives were.  But I do remember it kept us sane.

Sanity is something that's a little bit lacking in my life at present.

So I am making some changes and bringing back our Family Day of Rest.

Saturday's here we come!  I'm really excited!

Saturdays have been designated, because they just make sense.  Boyo works Thursday and Friday.  I study Tues/Wed/Thurs.  He studies Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri.  We have church Sunday.  Now, I could say that Mondays will be my Sabbath.  But I've been down this road enough to know that it won't work.  I forget.  I have housework to do and life takes over.  Doing it on my own just doesn't cut it for me.  And half the reason for us to have a Sabbath is so we can go and do something together.  Something relaxing or reviving. Something FAMILY.  We just aren't getting enough quality time together.  We see each other, sure.  But there's always stuff to be done.  So I figure if we have a Saturday Family Day,  then it at least opens the door to the possibility of going for a bushwalk, or heading out to the beach or the park.  Or doing nothing very energetically!  Together.  No housework, no study, no set commitments (which is why our Sabbath will never be a Sunday - having to be somewhere does not constitute a day off in my books!  Church on Sunday is very important to me, but so is having a day of rest).

In order to make this work, I'm moving cleaning for my mum to a kindy day.  That means less study time.  So in order to do that, I'm going to be getting up earlier on Tues/Wed/Thurs (study/kindy days).  I'm hoping that it will feel worth it.  I know (in my head) that it will be.  I'm just wondering how I will feel sitting in the cold dark office studying when my bed is still nice and warm.  I've really enjoyed not having to be up before 6am these past twelve months.  I am not relishing the prospect of that changing.  But I am looking forward to our Sabbath.  The other thing we are going to try out is having a Housework Sunday.  In other words, rather than trying to fit our household stuff in over various days during the week, we're going to try putting a designated amount of time aside on Sunday where we both become Energizer bunnies and get lots done...vacuum, dust, bathrooms, mop, weed, lawns, all that sort of stuff.  Because there's about 3hrs a week of work to do keeping up with our new place, compared to about 1.5hrs in our old place.  It will be interesting to see how well that works.

To days of rest!

Amy