Call the Sabbath a Delight

"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 58:13-14

There needs no further explaination as to how we are spend HIS Sabbath. Since moving our day of worship from Sunday to HIS day of worship, Saturday, over 5 years ago, our family can honestly say that the Sabbath is a delight. We look forward to the sun's departure, it's bedtime, so that we can begin to cease from our labours. Usually Friday is our Sabbath chore day where we clean house. The boys have their chores and I have mine. By the time Dad comes in, he's already been to the store to pick up Sabbath treats. That's his way of setting Sabbath apart for the kids. The youngest has been known to ask "Is today Sabbath?" thinking ahead as to what his treat might be. If the day he asks on is not Sabbath, he'll follow up with the question "Well, when is Sabbath, then?".

Usually, our evening is marked by a dinner that begins with a prayer, Sabbath bread, and Sabbath wine/juice. We try to slow this dinner time down as we really don't have anywhere to go. My husband usually makes us speak about one or two things that we are thankful for in the past week. Sometimes, probably not often enough, we have friends over. Once the dinner is over, everyone helps clean up. At this time we move to the living room, where we spend sometime reading Scripture and pray about any concerns.

This evening is our movie night, and now as I type I'm thinking that perhaps we are seeking our own pleasure. I'm being honest, this is what we do. I'll have to talk to my husband about this. Anyhow, borrowing a movie from the library is best because they're free.

This is our junk food night. Although we try to find healthy alternatives, it's not as much fun as pop and chips/popcorn.
Bed times are relaxed and we seem to go to bed when we're tired, knowing that Sabbath morning means sleeping in. I usually make a point to turn off any alarms that may rudely want to wake us. Our Father rested, and we want to rest too.

By the time we're all awake and have had breakfast, and the dogs have been walked, I'm pretty much ready for my late morning nap. AHHH I love Sabbath.

After lunch, usually made by my husband, to give me a rest, we all take up our instruments and spend some time worshipping our Creator, our King. Everyone has a favorite song, and sometimes we've even come up with our own, on the spot.

Once we've finished singing and playing, we gather together in the living room to take turns reading from the Scriptures. It's usually a stop and go reading because we encourage the children to ask any questions as they have them.

By this time it's late afternoon and guess what! Time for another nap. What a delight this Sabbath! After a late nap it's just time for more rest.

We've tried to maintain a shopping free/ working free day and unless the kids are sick and in need of medication, we rarely buy or sell anything on the Sabbath. There have been days that we've participated in something outside our usual routine, but we've always have felt disappointed with the feeling of not trying to keep the Sabbath holy (set apart).

We have experienced an interesting phenomenon since moving to the seventh day. Resting on the day blessed by the Father ( see Genesis), gives you more energy to work for the upcoming week. When Sunday morning rolls along, we are ready for "work". It's a strange occurance and I don't have an explaination for it, but it's like there is more time for the rest of the week.

There really is a blessing on the Seventh Day.