Christmas! Sabbath! Christmas Sabbath?

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen...  It's right there in the title.  We're suppose to rest.  Even in this crazy Christmas season.  Advent the time of preparation should be a time of peace and Joy and Hope, and Peace. Did I mention Peace?   Does "Silent Night, Holy Night" reflect your Christmas season?  Or is it more "12 Days of Christmas"  with shoppers (you) shopping, and wrappers (you again) wrapping, and bakers(still you) baking,  kids a crabbing, and lords a leaping (don't you just love a good leaper!)

This is the perfect time to build Sabbath into your life.  Below is my Top 10 list of how to do that!

1.  Make a list of the things you want/need to have happen for Christmas to be Christmas...let the rest go.  (Cookies...gone!  I don't need them, it was stressful for me, and my cookie baking crew is no longer local so...good bye cookies!)
2.  Ask for help.  Don't be afraid to delegate.  (Especially if you are hosting a gathering.  People are so happy it's not at their house, they're willing to do/bring almost anything!)
3.  Find AND ACTUALLY USE an Advent devotion each morning.  Get your day centered right from the start. (So many to choose from, might I suggest Luther Seminary's God Pause! (click here to subscribe to God Pause)
4.  Take a walk.  Make it a priority, NOT AFTER the "stuff" is done, but before! (I have gotten so good at leaving stuff  "'til later" that I may just give up housekeeping altogether!)
5.  Go to a mall just for the decorations and festive atmosphere.  I know it sounds crazy, but leave your wallet at home and just enjoy the sights and sounds and music.  Without the pressure of the lines and purchases to make, it is a lovely "indoor!" place to just be. Park faraway and use the walk in as your walk for the day(Think of it as your own personal arboretum, which someone decorated for you with great extravagance)
6.  Breathe.  (Please!  it really is a must)
7.  Get rid of 10 things.  (Um sorry relatives are not an option, I was thinking more like a bundt pan unless of course you make bundt cake relatively often.  In that case please drop one off...see #1!)
8.  Random acts of kindness!  Pay for the coffee of the stranger behind you in line, shovel a neighbor's walk...If you get stuck, click here for 101 ideas!  (If you're a baker drop off Christmas cookies to someone who doesn't bake any longer...um, see #1!)
9.  Sing like no one's listening. (click here to watch a Nativity reinactment of a little girl singing with abandon!)
10.  Enjoy your surroundings!  Lay under the tree and look up through the lights, walk through the neighborhood and watch for snowmen or pretty lights, be amazed by the snow, keep a running count of Christmas sweaters!


A few De-Stressing Sites

• 10 day guide
• skills you need
• time management strategies

Sabbath Rest

Don Postema says this about rest, "We all do it already-almost intuitively.  We work and we rest. We produce and we play. We cram for an exam and we celebrate.  We achieve, but then we find a way to escape: a movie, a concert...We labor and try to find an opportunity for leisure-a day off, a vacation- so we can get recharged and return to work refreshed.  And if we don't take time off, but just keep on working, we get so exhausted that our body reacts.  We become sp fatigued that we have to take a nap, or we get sick and are forced to stop."

In the book "Catch Your Breath" they go on to ask, "What is the typical pattern of your day or week?  How do you relax?  Do you find relaxing difficult? Wasteful? Guilt producing? Beneficial? Invigorating?"

I would love to hear how rest is incorporated into your life!

Thanksgiving Sabbath

Thanksgiving was great.  I kept thinking how happy I was that Thursday was not the day of the week I had picked for Sabbath.  Thanksgiving = giving thanks.  Thanksgiving does NOT= rest!
We cooked, we took a long walk, we ate, we watched football, we made cookies for the Mission Jamaica Bake sale.  It was lovely and festive and fun.  I can't imagine doing it any other way. But I started feeling guilty because it wasn't very restful.  Should Thanksgiving be restful?  I had never thought of it as necessary but now that I have Sabbath on the brain it seemed like I should be changing it up. Or should we? Yikes, I feel a little stressed trying to figure out how to make Thanksgiving happen without a flutter of activity. The thought of  NOT being busy is now making me a little anxious frankly!

I have decided that for us, it's Okay to be busy, and have a full day,
as long as it doesn't become so stressful that I'm biting the heads off of my family members. I guess that's why there is a time for everything under heaven.  Not all days are meant to be Sabbath days.  Not all Sabbath days are meant to be the same.  If you are building in Sabbath time, remember to build in variety!  And when you add Sabbath time into your schedule remember that it is meant to compliment the rest of your week, not complicate it!

I heard the voice of Jesus say, "Come unto me and rest;
lay down, o weary one; lay down your head upon my breast."

I came to Jesus as I was, so weary worn and sad;
I found in him a resting place, and he has made me glad.

                                                                - Horatius Bonar