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A couple of weeks ago during our annual summer vacation, the Lord spoke to me and asked me a very peculiar question. This question was probably answered too quickly because the conversation lasted for the next few days.
A gentle voice said, "Are you keeping ALL of my commandments?"
The short version is no, I was not keeping all of His commandments and the one overlooked was lucky number four. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it…” -Exodus 20:8-11
In a few weeks, I will go into full detail of the conversation as well as the road trip itself but today seems like the perfect day to share about the revelation (even if it took me a while to get there).
Late Friday afternoon, my husband and I grabbed our shopping list and headed to our local HEB.
Funny enough, a slight disagreement tried to rear its ugly head before entering the store but we clearly knew what it was all about. See, the night before we decided to honor our first Sabbath. Though we did not have a clue what to do, it made it a little easier to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. After shutting down a ridiculous attempt of a disagreement, we filled our cart with a number of goodies such as manchego, brie and port cheeses, fresh vegetables and guacamole, and a variety of all things delicious.
As a family, we agreed to turn off all technology for twelve hours. We also decided to cook and bake together, play games, read the Bible and most importantly, enjoy God's presence throughout the evening. As noted above, we decided on a twelve hour Sabbath (because we were shooting for an obtainable goal) and three hours in we started looking awkwardly toward one another asking, "Now what do we do?"
We pulled out the game of chess and one of our favorites, Sequence. The clock passed by and we ended the evening with reading the latter part of Jeremiah. We enjoyed the evening as a loving couple and went to sleep before 10:30 PM. We knew by the time we woke up our first Sabbath would be in the books ... and we were proud.
Then 10 AM rolled around, and we were all (especially Moose) bright-eyed and bushy tailed. We both agreed to keep the Sabbath going so we got dressed, enjoyed a delightful breakfast and ended our Sabbath with a good old latte with God. I glanced over to my watch it was noon.
We made it 18 hours, without a hint of technology. There was almost zero crying involved and so much was learned. We were energized, reconnected and most of all rested. We couldn't understand why we had not participated in this commandment before and even though we had no idea what to do, we had a blast doing it.
Things I learned while honoring the Sabbath:
1. By grace, I learned that I am not a slave and have been given the opportunity to rest.
2. I like my husband. Seriously, I love my husband but sometimes liking our spouse can be tough. Today I realized how much I like my husband.
3. I feel so much better when I'm disconnected from the world. Even being an extreme "extrovert", I realized we all need time to step back and breathe.
4. As much as I love social media, it drains not only my time but my energy.
5. I wrote more in one day of rest than I did all week.
6. I forgot how much I enjoy baking. I want to do more of this!
7. Resting on the Sabbath does not make me lazy, no matter what the world says.
8. I thoroughly enjoy when my husband and I read together.
9. This past year, I have decided to re-prioritize my life and today I feel like it has been an accomplishment.
10. I want to do this again because I loved having the opportunity to sit back and enjoy God's presence.
I challenge everyone to take a step back and slow down at least one day this week. Turn off ALL of your devices and graciously accept God's gift of rest.
Please click and download your FREE printable below! And don't forget to let me know what you learned by honoring the Sabbath!
Hugs,
