Sunday, May 18, 2008

Seek The Lord Sunday

I thought I'd participate in a new carnival I found. It's called "Seek The Lord Sunday" and it's hosted by Daiquiri at Call Her Blessed . She gives the topic earlier in the week for us to share our thoughts on. Check out her blog and her topic for next Sunday, perhaps you'd like to join us.

The topic this week is: Keeping the Sabbath Holy.

Seeing that this is one of the Ten Commandments, I think it ought to be taken seriously. What I don't know is how does one keep the Sabbath holy? It's my understanding that we are not to work on Sundays. To that I would say, define "work".

To me, "work" is anything that is not enjoyable. Cooking, for instance, is work to me. Decorating my house, scrapbooking or even blogging, to me, is not work. It's enjoyable. It's relaxing. It de-stresses me. It helps me find my "happy place".

One thing that I do make a concerted effort toward on Sundays is slowing down, spending more time with my kids on the floor, reading to them or napping with them. I will make more of an effort to get together with family or call a friend on Sunday. I don't think anyone would argue that those things are not work but I do have to make an effort to do these things or the day will go by just like any other.

I spoke with a friend of mine just minutes ago on this topic. She said that her family not only makes an effort not to work but are conscientious not to do things that cause others to work - like go grocery shopping or eat at a restaurant. I like that idea. I don't think I've put much thought into how I may be affecting others on that day. That is something I'll be paying more attention to in the near future.

One thing that I don't really do, ironically enough, is spend more of that day just with God, Himself. Although I go to church in the morning, I often forget to bring Him home for lunch or for much of the day after that. Like a lot of parents out there, I think I just get right back into mommy-mode as soon as I walk through the door. I put the focus back on me. What do I need to do? What do I need to get done? Who do I need to take care of? Since we get home at 12:30, I have one child who needs to go immediately down for a nap and another who is hungry for lunch so, BOOM, church is over and it's right back to "real life".

As you can probably ascertain by now, keeping the Sabbath Holy is an area I need a bit of work in. I guess, really, I need to "work" on that on Sundays. Hmm...I wonder if that's okay?

5 comments:

Daiquiri said...

Thanks so much for participating, Amanda! I loved your post too...far more articulate and organized than mine. If one thing is clear to me after studying this topic, it's that I have some more studying and praying to do. Tune in next week for a much simpler topic!

Thanks again for linking up. I'll try to remember to stop by on Tuesday and return the favor :)

Daiquiri said...

BTW, I'd love it if you'd join my Christian Moms Blog Ring. Look for the tulips in my left sidebar, click on them, and sign up :)

Anonymous said...

As a newbie Christian, there are still SO many things I simply don't know enough about - keeping the Sabbath holy is one of them. I love the idea and I agree with you on the 'do nothing to cause others to work' concept. There are so many things that constitute 'work' though, aren't there, LOL.

My routine at the moment - in an ideal world, LOL - is to spend a large part of Sunday afternoon baking for the coming week's school lunches. Yours and Daiquiri's posts about the sabbath has me wondering whether I should completely clear Sunday. Mmm...something to definitely think on...

Cheers,
Lizzie
http://whisperofgrace.blogspot.com/

Debbie said...

We work on this also and explain to the kids it is a family day..Not a day to go shopping ...It's so nice to have a down day that we don't do the things we do the other 6 days of the week..It is so refreshisng!

Laurel said...

This is a great topic. I am a total believer in staying away from stores or restaurants so that others won't have to work for me. Moreover, I think it's important to try to make this day meaningfully different from the rest of the week. For our family that means no tv, and I have found that it helps us make more time for each other, good friends, study, and rest.

Interestingly, I read in a magazine a few years ago that those who have one day a week that is "different" from the others enjoy better health. God is so smart, isn't He?