Friday, June 17, 2005

Sabbath Conclusion

8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 20:8-11
Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27
My interpretation:

Remember = Don't forget
the Sabbath = the day God rested after creating
by keeping it Holy = make it different than the other days of the week - make it special

God gave us this day to refresh us. To remind us to rest and appreciate His creations. Keeping it holy is not worrying about rules nor is it treating it like any other day. I will not ignore chores during the week and put them off until Sunday. I also will not avoid things such as weeding (* see below), organizing, playing, etc. just because it is Sunday if these things provide me enjoyment and rest. I will not freak out if we have to go to a store on Sunday, however, I will not schedule my grocery shopping for that day in regularity. I will not have a list of tasks to complete for Sunday - - God and I will just be. Does any of that make sense?? Thankfully, it does to me.

* Just a little aside on weeding. Weeding is a new found chore for me that strangely enough, I love. I did not play in the dirt as a child, so this is probably my inner child getting out. Or possibly, it is my way of "organizing" the outdoors and it makes me feel close to God. Either way, I have found the last few months that I could do that for hours. I love the feel of the dirt, pulling out the weeds, the satisfaction of seeing results...the possibility of finding buried treasure. I am not kidding. It is exciting. Thankfully for Daniel, I am a simple-minded gal so buried treasure for me is anything that isn't dirt, a weed, a bug, or glass (honestly, we have concluded that this property used to be a glass farm before we moved in. Pick any spot in the yard and dig for 30 seconds and you find glass!). I get very excited and take the artifact inside and clean it up and present it to Daniel for inspection. He dutifully inspects it and identifies it and gives me a pat on the back and a "good job Jenny" and I am on my way again. So far I have found a piece of a pot, a Christmas light, and a piece of something that we can't figure out, but I am sure that it is something the Indians left behind. I wonder who used these things, and when, and what for, etc. etc. How exciting is that!!!!!

Final Thoughts:
I am heading to my Sister's this evening, which I am very excited about. A big blog hello to her as she started her own blog yesterday (link on the right). I have to pack, which I hate and now I am a little disturbed at myself that I haven't been able to weed in awhile because I let that get to the bottom of my to-do list as it doesn't seem like a top priority even though it is so much fun. I have problems with that - putting fun off to get "work" done.

Special thanks to Danielle for sharing
www.biblegateway.com
www.webster.com

Have a fun day!

2 comments:

Danielle said...

Jen...

I'm so proud of you and your conclusion. I think God must be smiling.

Love you.

Rebecca said...

I am so glad you have found peace with this issue that has been troubling you and I know God will honor you for seeking Him to find the answer! I hope the weather is nice and you can weed tomorrow!
Love,
Becs

PS Thanks again for your visit-- we had such a nice time with you!