Do you take a Sabbath day, a day of rest?
I’ve been trying ~keyword trying~ to consistently observe a Sabbath day since becoming a Christian back in high school.
Taking a true day of rest every week is not easy, particularly for farmers. And moms!
I’ve read/listened to six books over the past few months, a very impressive feat considering I hadn’t read a book for personal enjoyment outside of school since the eighth grade (my college professors would assign up to 10 books PER CLASS)!
Setting aside more time to read has encouraged me to think about how to make my Sabbath (whatever that looks like for you, if you practice it) into a “Day of Delight”, instead of a day of deprivation or a day of recovering from exhaustion.
Like many people, I can find myself using my Sundays as a catch-up day to check the box of going to church, then finish all the other things I couldn’t finish during the week and make my decisions for the upcoming week.
Instead of feeling like a restful, enjoyable day, I started dreading it. I could never fully be present while hanging out with friends and family, because I knew I needed to get home and finish laundry, plan my week, etc.
Something I’ve started implementing –
Setting aside an entire afternoon or an entire day to prepare for your Sabbath.
-Tidy the house.
-Do the laundry.
-Pay the bills, answer the emails.
-Run the errands and do the shopping.
-Plan out and calendar your upcoming week.
-Decide how you want to intentionally enjoy your Day of Delight, Sundays for me.
This all may seem so obvious, but I never realized how important it is to PREPARE for a day of rest, rejuvenation and delight.
When I’m intentional about doing this, my day off finally feels like a day of delight because I had my own back and scheduled time to prepare for it.
Aside from reading and painting and spending time doing all of our favorite outdoor sports, we host people at our house for dinner many Sundays.
On those days, as I look around at our space filled with family, refugees (who feel like family), friends, and employees, I am often overwhelmed with joy and delight… and so grateful that I can be fully, wholly and completely present, knowing that everything around the house and the farm was already attended to.
I’m not afraid to host in a messy space (hosting imperfectly is far better than not hosting at all), but having farm and house tasks finished, groceries purchased, and my next week pre-planned makes for more enjoyable times on Sundays.
Today, Thursday, I set aside time to prepare for another Day of Delight on Sunday. With farmers market prep Fridays and the market Saturdays, Thursday is my prep day in this season of life.
Those two busy days are another reason why one of my personal goals is to be complete with the farmers market after this season, focusing my attention towards serving you at our new farm store and reclaiming my weekends with my six-month-old and his dad who only gets weekends with us.
Here’s to following through and sticking to the things on our schedules (like Thursday prepping for a day of rest) so we can bring calm back into our everyday lives and free up time and headspace to glorify God and savor every minute.
…and those Sunday dinners? You’re invited. Let us host you sometime!
