Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Preparation day and the Sabbath

Over the past several weeks, I've spent a lot of time in prayer and Bible study. I've had my eyes opened about what Sabbath means to God, what it means to me, and how I should be spending His holy day. I've been convicted in several areas of my life, places where I feel that I'm not really letting God lead.

One of those places is Sabbath preparation. I truly believe that God has given us a day of rest, a day to spend with Him, and that He is offended if we don't honor His command to keep His Sabbath holy. I have been convicted that I should not be spending my Sabbath days doing household labor that could be done on other days, mainly in the areas of meal preparation and how I get ready for church (ironing clothes, etc).

I feel that I need to be more conscientious about how I spend the rest of the week so that I am prepared for the Sabbath when it arrives. There is no excuse for not having our clothes ironed and ready by Friday afternoon. There is no reason why I cannot prep food and prepare meals on Friday for Sabbath. I haven't been doing it, mainly because I've been lazy and have not been convicted about the importance of following God's commands about the Sabbath day.

My Sabbath issues are not just about preparing in advance. I tend to be more motivated about cleaning at the beginning of the week and lose motivation as the week progresses. By the time Friday arrives, the house is rather messy. I attend a knitting group on Friday mornings, go grocery shopping immediately afterwards, and then spend the afternoon scrambling to get things done before sundown. Usually I fail, for whatever reason. So Sabbath arrives and I have dishes in my sink, dinner half prepared, clean clothes but nothing ironed, and an untidy house. I stress when the house is messy and thus often feel overwhelmed on Sabbath.

I am making a commitment this week to put God first. That means that I need to prepare myself both physically and spiritually to spend time with Him on Sabbath. My house needs to be clean so that I can rest my mind. My food preparation needs to be done so that I'm not distracted by the every day chores. My dishes need to be washed and put away so that I can toss the dirty ones into the dishwasher as we use them and thus not create a huge mess in the kitchen, which in turn stresses me out.

I'm sure I won't get everything right this first week. But I am trying. I want to be open and ready to spend time with God during the time He set aside for us.

1 comment:

Julie Fukuda said...

I can't say I am always prepared, but I know myself and things need to be all ready the day before so I won't be stressed out. Just wait, though, until that daughter is part of your life. Do you know how many activities are expected to take place on weekends? I am always juggling church time ... which I put first (mainly because of my choir commitment)and scout or school or meetings that are called at other people's convenience.