One Word, Five Voices: Sabbath

When Ryan and I were newly married and still trying to figure out how this eight sides of family thing was going to work, we felt awful saying no to family engagements or dates with friends, especially when we had no official plans. But as time went on, our Saturdays and Sundays started to get booked up week after week. Several weeks would go by before we realized we hadn't had a free weekend to rest and recharge in recent memory. It wasn't until some friends invited us to dinner and our next open time was more than two months away that we realized something had to give.

We decided some "Days of Nothing" were in order, and started actually scheduling them into our shared calendar. They are what you might imagine days of nothing to be—restful, jammie-clad, take-out-consuming kinds of days with no plans of any kind . . . other than the "nothing," of course. When someone asked us to do something, it was easy to say, "sorry, we're all booked up that day" because it was actually scheduled in our calendars.

Today's word, sabbath, reminded me of our days of nothing. A sabbath is intended to be set apart. There should be no work, just rest. It's a time to recharge from the week that's passed and get ready for the week ahead—true relaxation.

I'll be the first to admit that days of nothing became harder with little ones around, but the older our boys get, the more we'll try to foster this sense of rest in them. And from the multiple requests I get from my oldest for a "jammie day," I'm guessing it'll catch on just fine.

When's your next day of nothing?

Recent jammie day fun with the little man.

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 Check out what my friends think of today's word on their blogs: Shawn, Heather, Steph and Brian.