In full disclosure, it is hard to break into the habit of Sabbath. It is easy to continue doing chores, running errands, checking email and whatnot on the weekend. Especially yard work. And for me it is work. Some people putz in the yard because it relaxes them. I enjoy it, but don't get me wrong, it is work, so I avoid it on Sabbath. So, we as a family haven't been the best at carving out this time each week. We believe in its importance. God says it is critical to your health as a human, as a family, as a community. But we have come up short in living in this command. So Friday we agreed that Saturday we would make sure that Sabbath happened. We felt this was even more important since we have so much to prepare for our trip, we needed to make sure our priorities we in order.
So yesterday morning started with each kid coming in to have snuggle time. Once their snuggle quota was met, they went to build a train track in the living room and Paul and I got our snuggle time where we get to casually wake up and talk about the day.
Once up and out of bed, my first thought was to start getting stuff done. I had to remind myself that today chores weren't allowed, so I sat down at the table to color with my kids. But they had to show me what they had been up to. They made a new bed for Little out of our empty tupperware bin. It was too cute not to share.
Then my children proceeded to draw me coloring pages. It was awesome, Here is a picture that Big drew me and we colored together. Nana her hair is read in your honor.
Middle decided, at five mind you, to draw out a paint by number to help me along. I wasn't sure if I should be impressed or insulted. I choose to be impressed. Here are those pictures. I love how many numbers he gave me to make sure I understood what color I needed. Ha.
After coloring for a bit, the kids decided to come into the kitchen and help me make scones. There is something wonderful about joining together in the kitchen and cooking together. We made tasty cinnamon pecan scones with coconut milk. Once the scones were in the oven, Middle was the creator of our smoothies. He decided everything that went in them. So we feasted on scones and strawberry/blueberry/kiwi/coconut milk smoothies.
It was yummy.
During breakfast, we started our "feed your body, feed your soul" devotion. This basically means that we passages from my Bible during breakfast so that we remember as we feed our body food, our soul needs it too. It is also a great way to get the kids into "real" word of God.
So before we begin, Middle says "What does soul mean?" Again I wasn't sure whether to be impressed that he is paying attention, or offended that we have been doing this for months and he is now just asking me. I again choose to be impressed that he asked.
Then I realized, how the heck do I answer this to a five year old. So all you theologians out there can tell me how I did. I thought for a quick moment and then said,
"Think of an egg. You have the outside shell and then the inside "egg" part. The white and yellow yoke is the egg right? The essence of the egg is what's inside. You crack the shell to get to the inside, the egg. Well each person has a soul. Our soul is like the egg and our skin, our body, is like the shell. The shell holds the egg, the insides."
Then he made the observation that when we die we don't take our body, but we get a new body when Christ comes again, just like we crack and throw away the shell of the egg.
OK, yup, we'll go with that.
So we sat there eating and drinking and talking about eggs and death and our soul. It felt right not to have to hurry off anywhere, but to focus on my kids and where their hearts and heads are at right now.
Since chores aren't allowed, I asked if the boys wanted to go outside and toss the football around. I'm not gonna lie, it was weird for me to be outside playing. If I'm outside I am usually doing chores around the yard. Our yard has been neglected for two summers due to the tornado. Even my son noticed that every afternoon I work in the yard. He asked me two days ago not to work in the yard and just do sidewalk chalk with him. As a manager of the home it is hard to put aside all the chores and mess staring you in the face and remember to get down on your hands and knees and play.
So since the house next door got tore down, we have this big beautiful open field. The boysand I played catch with the football for about 45 min. We laughed, we fell down, we had silly throws and we worked on good throwing skills. I caught myself a few times looking around and wanting to call quits to the game to pull a few weeks, put toys away, work on my fence, etc. But I stayed present with my children and I was rewarded with a wonderful morning. I made memories with my kids. I built trust and deepened my relationship with them. I was a mom who was present and played with my kids.
This truly happened because of the Sabbath. The Sabbath forces you to stop what you are doing and be present for what is important. It creates space for you to deepen and build relationship with yourself, the Lord, and your family. I had to physically remind myself not to work. To be present and attentive to the relationships around me. God has a high opinion about the Sabbath. It is important to him because he knows how deeply we need it.
Fun time, fun mom, playful mom was present on Saturday because I wasn't bogged down by chores. But the other cool thing that happened on Saturday morning was the conversations I had with my kids. When you aren't rushing off somewhere and you aren't looking at your to do list, you are able to hear your kids. To listen. To talk. To figure out life together. The Sabbath provides time for those conversations to happen.
So that was the first half of our day. The rest of the day included EMDR therapy with Big and a fabulous Mexican birthday party in the evening.
Beautiful things tend to happen when you have the time to allow them to happen. Lately I have been too busy for life to happen. Saturday, life happened.
