Recently God asked me a question.
Do you really know what it means to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy?
I wanna blog about this but, first I wanted to hear some feedback from you guys.
What do you do on sundays? Do you go to church but otherwise it's the same as any other day of the week? Is it a day about family and friends? Maybe, you take time that day to really rest and relax before another long week of work. Any cool traditions you and your family do every Sunday or things you never do on sundays?
I just really am curious to know, what Does the Sabbath mean to you and your family?
3 comments:
Well, this is a little tough to answer since we haven't been attending any one church regularly. Our typical Sunday involves church, either at a service or a Bible Study with just JD Man and myself (we don't get to do this during the week and I really cherish these times), and then just hanging out, relaxing, maybe doing a little project, playing games, going on walks, napping, visiting friends, etc.
We try not to do any real work on Sunday, but aren't totally immune "pulling our ox out of the ditch" either.
JD Man, of course, has the traditional Mennonite view of the Sabbath (church in the morning, Sunday dinner, hanging out the rest of the day) and to a point, so do I. But I was brought up being exposed to the idea that Jesus, just as He is our Atonement and Redeemer, is also our Sabbath Rest. Resting in Him all of the time as opposed to setting aside one day to rest from our physical labor. I knew people, growing up, who would go to church Sunday morning and go home and bale hay because it needed doing. And they definitely weren't simply church attenders- they had a real, true, vibrant faith and were observing the Sabbath the way they believed it was to be observed.
That said, I personally love having a relaxing Sunday and would definitely pull that card as an excuse for not working, but I think it's something that can very quickly become embroiled in legalistic ideas (you can only do this and this and this on Sundays) and attitudes. My question is: are we only giving Christ Sundays (or whatever day you choose as your Sabbath) when we should be giving Him every day of the week, every day of our lives? Just my thoughts.
For me it certainly means REST. However, as the seasons of my life change i.e. kids get older, I get older, things happen, etc. What I do on Sunday's change.
We use to go to church on Sundays and then fellowship with various church friends. When we didn't have friends inviting us over for Sunday dinner, or we didn't go visit grandparents, we would rest at home and enjoy each others company. We don't do any housework on Sunday's, but now we've added yard work as a time for us to come together as a family and work on outside projects. Anyway, before we took to yard work—we'd decided, this was years ago, to not do anything on Sundays, but relax. Then as the kids got a bit older we thought Sunday's were good for going to the zoo, strolling in the park, going to the neighborhood pool to swim during the summer.
So to sum up we started with fellowshipping, went to just relaxing, then incorporated leisurely Sunday family activites, and now it's yard work along with leisure activites and/or total nothing when we feel like it.
My conviction is that God places a different conviction for everyone's heart based on that person's family unique circumstances. It's sort of like that Scripture that says, "To those that know to do and don't, for him that is sin." So I think as long as you go with the conviction that the Lord has placed in your heart, you can't go wrong.
Our conviction is to mainly take it easy and do know "work." Another thing, my husband is self-employed and he use to have a bad habit of trying to "work" on Sunday's. I didn't like it and that's when I asked him if we could pray about it. The Lord let me to some information that Dr. Dobson and Chuck Swindoll wrote on the topic.
Hope this helps.
just came across your blog from likeawarmcupofcoffee.
This is a good question and one that should be well-considered.
For us, we are (or rather, my husband is) fully involved in ministry on Sundays. Therefore, Sundays are our day off. We take our day offs on Friday and do something special as a family (this will work until our kidlets begin attending school).
Although Sundays are busy, I do the legwork the night before. The main meal is in the crockpot and mostly ready when we come home from church. After lunch, we all take naps, then the rest of the evening is spent relaxing (we don't have evening church...yet). We try not to sit at the computers and do meaningless activities. For me, it usually means menu planning and writing out my grocery list for the next few days.
We're working to reevaluate some of these issues, too.
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