JoAnn Wray usually puts a meal in the crock pot the night before, and after church, her family gathers to eat. They talk about the past week, make plans for the week to come, and discuss their schedules. After their meal, they have a special prayer time. They keep a notebook with their requests and God’s answers to them. She says, “We have a growing list of answered prayers to review which encourages us to trust God’s timing when things seem rough.”

Family time like this is often an important part of keeping the Sabbath. When she was a teen, Nancy Ring’s father worked often on Sundays for his training as a paramedic. They tried to observe Sabbath time on his off days. “It wasn’t overtly spiritual, but it generally involved quiet time and family-focused activities. We not only recharged, we reconnected as a family,” she says.

Practices such as these are not rigid standards for everyone to follow but simply ideas to help us envision what our Sabbaths might look like. Judy Gann admits that her perfectionist tendencies might lead her to make her day a legalistic routine, something that many of us would also have to guard against. Instead, she wants to “remain open and sensitive to how the Lord would have me use this time.”

Allowing God to direct our time and heeding Jesus’ urgings to come away with Him to rest will free us to not only keep the Sabbath but enjoy it. As Jesus said in Mark 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” It’s a gift from the Father’s hand for His children — our day to be with Him and to enjoy what He has given us.

This article first appeared in The Lookout, June 4, 2006. Used with permission.
Freelance writer LeAnne Benfield Martin lives near Atlanta with her husband, her young daughter, and her 12-year-old yellow Lab. Their family’s Sabbath time together usually includes taking a nap, watching a family video, playing, reading, and sometimes making a special dinner. LeAnne’s work has appeared in many Christian magazines and she enjoys writing about many topics, especially the arts. Check out her blog on Christians in the arts.