These 5 Ways to Keep Your Sanity on the Sabbath can help you refocus. The Sabbath is ordained by God as a gift and a blessing. So why don’t we receive it as such? If the Bible admonishes our rest, why aren’t we resting? Today, Marilyn Jansen shares how we can sit a spell with God and experience the Sabbath anew!
5 Ways to Keep Your Sanity on the Sabbath
The seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.
EXODUS 20:10
My husband surprised me with a gas double oven a few years ago. The baker inside me danced a jig. I had visions of sheet pans full of cookies, roasting turkeys with all the fixins, and dozens of loaves of bread. It had five racks and two temperature zones and gleamed like a new penny.
Hot diggity dog!
Other women want shoes or spa treatments or new outfits. I want gadgets, appliances, and cookbooks. My kids complain that I have more gadgets than sense. The aebleskiver pan, pizzelle maker, and raclette would agree! A few of these gadgets take careful practice to use correctly. It is very important to read directions.
When the oven was installed, I immediately curled up with a cup of coffee and the manual. Amid the technical specs and directions for the steam self-cleaning option came information for using the Sabbath mode.
The oven has a Sabbath mode! During the Sabbath, or Shabbat, some Jewish people refrain from any kind of work. That means they cannot turn on the oven or the lights or touch any of the buttons. They take their day of rest seriously. To help the Jewish community stay true to their beliefs, many appliances offer this option.
The instructions for using the Sabbath mode require a whole page of explanation. It is very detailed. The instructions for the Sabbath in the Bible also take up a lot of space. The Old Testament repeats the requirement many times: The seventh day is holy (Genesis 2:3). Take a rest (Leviticus 16:31). Do no work (Exodus 20:10). And, “You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3, nkjv). That explains the Sabbath mode.
5 Ways to Keep Your Sanity on the Sabbath
If the Bible admonishes our rest, why aren’t we resting? The oven has a mode, a setting, a predetermined way of behaving. Once set into motion, the programming takes over. Maybe that is what we need: A setting for rest. A predetermined behavior that we can’t turn off. A mode for following the Word of God.
Surely, if an oven can do it, we can. But how? How do we keep our sanity and keep the Sabbath in the middle of this very real, very demanding life? Although there are no magic solutions that fit every life, here are five ideas that might help.
1. If you have younger children, set aside a selection of toys that only come out on your Sabbath day.
Make sure these include toys that keep their attention longer than thirty seconds. When my kids were young this gave me time to enjoy a scone (try the James Earl Scone recipe in my book) and a cup of tea.
2. Pre-make or preorder food for the Sabbath.
You can do that a week or more ahead of time. During the week, when I am making a dinner our family, I often double it. I put one meal in the freezer. Then Saturday, I put that meal in the fridge to thaw. I throw it in the crockpot before church so I can nap Sunday afternoon. Napping is good for my soul—and everyone else’s.
3. Set your electronic devices to turn off at a certain time on the Sabbath and stay off for at least an hour or two.
Some routers can be set to shut down for certain hours. Or set a weekly alarm to remember to turn the internet off. I set alarms on my phone, tablet, and computer to turn things off because I’m the one who needs the extra push. Wordle is a temptress.
4. Start a Monday cleaning routine so you can let things slide a little on Sunday.
Or if you are like me, you might let them slide into Tuesday or Wednesday. Don’t obsess over picking up or doing dishes or whatever it is you feel pulled to do. It may take a little time to relax and let that go. Keep at it. Through prayer, meditation, or simply taking a bubble bath, you can retrain your brain to put rest first.
5. Get everyone in your household to participate in stress-reducing activities.
Maybe a journal or coloring book—a journal with wide lines or a coloring book and crayons for small kids, a diary with a lock or an adult coloring book for teens, a very masculine leather journal for men. Then set a timer and let everyone write, draw, color, paste, copy, or drool on their own book. It may only last five or ten minutes at first. But with practice and persistence, this time can become something the whole family will love.
And if you need something baked on the Sabbath, come on over, my oven has you covered.
Right now you can enter to win a copy of Come Sit a Spell!
5 Ways to Keep Your Sanity on the Sabbath
Marilyn Jansen has been writing and creating since she glued dandelions into her first book at age four. She is a budding photographer who takes way too many photos of seen but under-appreciated things. Because she has been an editor in Christian publishing since 1998, her haphazardly stacked collections of books threaten to take over her home. As co-owner of Nashville Cooks, Marilyn writes about Music City’s diverse food scene and contributes recipes inspired by those menus. She has three adult children and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Her book Come Sit a Spell takes you back to a time when people’s lives were real and raw, where folks lived lives full of love hard-worn. It gives readers that feeling of home that they often don’t realize they are looking for. Through her personal reflections on growing up in the Missouri Ozarks, she reminds us that God’s love comforts and guides us even when the pantry is empty. These stories, based on memories from three generations of kitchens, come fully baked with recipes that just about anyone can master, and ingredients that are staples in almost every cupboard. Come Sit a Spell is about people and food—not the glamorous kind, but the everyday, love-’em-with-all-you-got kind that is the foundation of country homes across America.
You can reach her at her website at www.marilynjansen.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/dotcommom/, or at Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/dotcommom61/.
Soon to be at tiktok @marilynsjansen
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