how do you keep the sabbath?

from where i grew up, keeping means: no play. no cooking. no heavy meals. no secular work.

from where i am now, keeping is: playing soccer or volleyball. swimming. good fellowship lunch.

and places i visit during my mission trips, sabbath keeping varies. others, extrememly conservative (no bath on the sabbath) and others - too liberal (sports, work, etc)

this is of course done after the church service in the morning.

afternoon mostly is slated as "fellowship" times.

how do you keep the sabbath in your area?

where do you stand?

thats a good question

notice the TOPIC


its not asking 'how they should keep it'( we have loads of opinions on that-hopefully in a different thread )


its asking How YOU keep it

which means honesty and where the rubber meets the road in your life!

I noted this topic yesterday... and decided to think about it a little because keeping Sabbath is so much MORE than just going to church...which we do rarely anyway due to my husband's health.

One of the ways we keep the Sabbath is to focus on marriage, family, and Abba Father. We also rest. Rest has a very literal application for us. I'm working a full time job and an additional 20 hours a week to make ends meet moonlighting writing custom software. In between, I ferry my husband to doctor's appointments, the emergency room, and anywhere else he needs to go.

We also recognize that Sabbath is a day to bear another's burden in a selfless and Abba focused way. One of the ways we do this, is to work at the Food Bank one Sabbath a quarter.

Living in Alaska, we also enjoy the outdoors. I try to spend a couple of hours each Sabbath with my children, outside. Well, in the summer anyway.

We don't do all of this every Sabbath, but we try and make Sabbath a special joy. Sometimes, if my husband is particularly pain-free, we include church. But we have to drive quite far to attend, and often, we would simply need to turn around and come home.

We also have home church. We sing, study, and pray together. And Abba Father and True Jesus are there.

Clio

I read this several days ago and have been thinking about my answer.

In my 20 years of being an Adventist, I have really changed what I do on Sabbath. I used to be Catholic and so approached Sabbath in a very don't don't don't attitude. I do believe it is because it was a very easy change from being a very works oriented religion to a very works oriented religion. All I ever heard is don't when I became an Adventist so I was very good about the don'ts on Sabbath.

Now 20 years later, I enjoy Sabbath like no other day. It is a day of worship, praise, thanksgiving, rest, and fellowship. I work harder on Sabbath than any other day because I enjoy fellowshiping with people. To do that requires a mom working 40 plus hours a week to cook easy things, and have lots of people over to our home. My children enjoy having new friends and old friends at the house on Sabbath. I hope that through this they too will learn that one of the best things that Jesus did was to get together for a meal with people. It is a wonderful way to get to know people, and for me the only time I can see and fellowship with people.
So Ant, Sabbath. . . .a very blessed day for me. It is my hope that it is a very blessed day for those I fellowhip with too!

K

thanks for sharing! i really enjoy reading testimonies.

Sabbath keeping for me is to go to church and Sabbath school. Some weeks I have food ready to cook in a preset oven and some Sabbaths I have to come up with some thing to cook. Most of the time we come home and eat and take a nap. If family is visiting we get together. Sometime we drive up to the mountains. This fall we are thinking about inviting several college kids over once a month maybe more if we can find another couple to do this with. One reason we are going to do this is one of Paul's cousins son will be attending WWC and we want to be supportive to him. I have big plans. I also want to invite a family from on of the girls Sabbath school over once in a while too. (I was very impressed to do some of these thing after Pastor Karl's sermon today.