Exhausted for My Sabbath

Why does it seem that whenever I blog about a topic my life seems to reflect the opposite? Here I am sharing Keri Wyatt Kent's posts about steps for creating a Sabbath habit and I've had an exhausting weekend, with minimal rest. There was much spiritual refreshment (with Bible studies and church) and great fellowship (the 5K run and a graduation party). But it just might have been too much of a good thing. I'm vegging now.

I guess I need especially step 10 this week. Here are steps 7 to 10 for your edification. Thanks, Keri, for allowing me to share them on this blog.

I Just Need a Rest: 10 Steps to Creating a Sabbath Habit: Part III

By Keri Wyatt Kent

7. Sleep! Many of us are sleep-deprived. Why? We’ve said yes to too many things, or we believe way too strongly in our own importance. It may be that the first step toward Sabbath practice in your life is to give yourself the gift of a full night of sleep at least that one night.

8. Start at sundown. In over 15 years of practicing Sabbath, I have found that following the biblical timeframe for Sabbath works best. So if your Sabbath day is Sunday, it actually begins at sundown on Saturday. At that time, simply stop. Set aside your work, knowing it will be there in 24 hours. Your Sabbath might begin with a meal with friends or family. Take your time, make it leisurely. Have conversation, chew your food, savor the experience. Hang out with the people you love. Then go to bed, get up and go to church, and you’ve already made it through half a Sabbath! If this is all you can manage, that’s a starting point. Sabbath ends, then, as the sun sets on Sunday, which will give you some time to prepare for the week ahead if you need it.

9. Find your joy. Sabbath rest doesn’t mean sitting around watching the walls. Rather than focusing on what you cannot do, think about what you have freedom from, and what you can do with that freedom. Play is a big part of Sabbath practice:  My husband and I like to go sailing on Sunday afternoons in the summer. We experience joy and praise God for the beauty of his creation when we are on the water. Take a walk or go for a run. Read a book. Call a friend and really listen. Play with your children. Take a nap without feeling guilty. Pray without watching the clock, because there is nowhere else you need to be.

10. Lean hard into grace. Like any spiritual practice, Sabbath-keeping won’t always go perfectly. Some weeks will be better than others. There are times when your best intentions will go up in flames and your attempts to rest will fail. That’s okay. God’s grace is sufficient. Know that you will get a chance to try again next week, and don’t give up! And if it does go well, don’t let yourself get legalistic or proud. This is not something you’re doing to impress God or anyone else.

Most of us are longing for rest. We are just so tired. But we never stop. Here’s the thing—no one is going to make you stop. You have to choose to receive the gift of Sabbath. It’s a choice you won’t regret.

 Keri Wyatt Kent is a speaker and author of seven books, including Rest: Living In Sabbath Simplicity. For more on Sabbath and her ministry, visit www.SabbathSimplicity.com.

Resurrecting Your Sabbath

If you haven't read the post from Monday, May 10, you probably want to do that first because today is a continuation of the article started there by Keri Wyatt Kent on Creating a Sabbath Habit. Monday's blog had the intro and the first two steps. Did you do them? Just remember that saying "No" isn't just so we can free up more time for our TV or our favorite book or sports—in fact, those might be some of the things we need to say "No" to—but to free up time to live at the rhythm of life designed by God.

Here is part two of Keri's article (the final 4 steps will appear later this week):

I Just Need a Rest: 10 Steps to Creating a Sabbath Habit (PART II)

By Keri Wyatt Kent

3. Delegate. Running a household is a full-time job. Moms who shoulder all of the work of a home by themselves are bound to feel resentment, but also will have trouble taking a day off because there is too much for them to do, especially if they do anything outside of the home (a job, volunteering, caring for an aging parent). If your children can reach the buttons on the washing machine, they should be doing their own laundry. By about third grade, they can pack their own lunches. Get a chore chart and make sure everyone in the house helps with dusting, vacuuming, mopping, dishes and so on. Delegating household chores will allow everyone the time to rest one day a week.

4. Do a little planning. Some of us are naturally planners, others are more spontaneous. But in order to have a day of rest (in which you can be totally spontaneous) you have to plan ahead. Before Sunday, get the grocery shopping and household chores done (with help from your family!!). Make enough for dinner on Friday and Saturday that you can eat leftovers on Sunday, or stock up on frozen pizza! Clean the house the day before. But if you don’t get everything done, let it go. Just stop, whether you’re fully prepared or not.

5. Make worship the focus. If we make Sabbath only about us and our need for rest and rejuvenation, we won’t sustain the practice. While Sabbath is a gift, it’s also a day to focus on God. Plan to attend church (working around kid’s sports schedules if need be). Take time during your 24 hours to be grateful. You can do this in private prayer, or have your family share around the dinner table what they were thankful for during the week.

6. Start small, and build slowly. Don’t go for an extreme makeover of your life. Just choose one thing to refrain from—be it laundry, grocery shopping, checking e-mail. And then choose one thing to engage in—maybe reading an inspiring book or taking a walk with a friend. Over the next several weeks, pick one thing each week to add to your Sabbath, and to subtract. Give yourself as many weeks as it takes to slowly build and refine your Sabbath practice.

Keri Wyatt Kent is a speaker and author of seven books, including Rest: Living In Sabbath Simplicity. For more on Sabbath and her ministry, visit www.SabbathSimplicity.com. 

Resting with a Guest

Les took me away for Mother's Day, not because I'm his mother, obviously, but because he knew I needed to rest away from the Mother's Day hype. Five weeks have not brought enough healing from my grief over Mom's death that I could deal with a day focused on how much we love our moms. Two days in Annapolis brought us much appreciated rest and refreshment, with friends and alone.

God planned our lives to include rest. Therefore, I am going to "rest" for a few blogs here and share with you a wonderful article from Keri Wyatt Kent on creating a Sabbath. I really want you to read it, so I am not going to share the whole thing at once. A few of Keri's 10 steps over the course of the week should give you enough to swallow and work on without being overwhelmed. I hope you'll enjoy it and apply it and come back later this week for more.

I Just Need a Rest: 10 Steps to Creating a Sabbath Habit

By Keri Wyatt Kent

Life sometimes seem to spin past us so fast. Our family, career, church, friends all seem to have needs that can consume us. Our involvements and obligations are not often optional. But there comes a point when it can feel a bit overwhelming. We need a rest.

The God who made us, who designed our bodies and souls, knew that we would not be able to function non-stop 24-7. That’s why when he laid out the rules for life, the best way to live, he told us to rest.

It seem odd that people would have to be commanded to take a day off—until we look in the mirror and realize we don’t obey that command. But just as our bodies need sleep to function, they’re also hard-wired by our creator to need a weekly break. Human beings function best when they take one day out of seven to just stop and rest.

Impossible? Not really. Taking one day a week to rest will actually help you to be more efficient, as well as making you happier and more connected spiritually. How do you get there? One step at a time. Here’s ten steps toward making rest a reality in your life.

1. Assess the current pace of your life: how many things have you said yes to that you should not have? While you cannot off-load your job or your children (as tempting as that may be), are there extra things you have volunteered for that you should not have? If you are a mom, have you signed your kids up for too many activities, so that you spend hours each day driving them around or managing their schedules? Maybe you need to cut back on the things you’re doing during the week, in order to make Sundays a bit less hectic.

2. Say no. We often say “yes” because we think it is the nicer thing to say, or we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. But every time you say “yes,” you’ve automatically said “no” to other things—and that sometimes includes being able to have a day to rest. Say no by saying things like,  “I’m not the right person for that job” or “Let me check my schedule and get back to you.” But then, say you simply cannot add anything else to your schedule. And don’t let your kids be in five activities just because they want to. Set loving limits so that they have some downtime.

Keri Wyatt Kent is a speaker and author of seven books, including Rest: Living In Sabbath Simplicity. For more on Sabbath and her ministry, visit www.SabbathSimplicity.com.

Searching for a Shield

My mom died a month ago (yes, that's why there have been no blogs). 


There are many ways I'll miss her presence in my life:

• Some of them funny—Her breaking out in song to match something someone just said. Her response when I did the same: "That's okay, I can't sing either."
• Some of them quirky—The way she was always reapplying lipstick in the car as you approached any stop. Her concern for everyone serving her in a restaurant, doctor's office, lab, or nursing facility as to whether they had yet eaten lunch and what time they got to go home.
• And some of them vital—Her love for her kids and grandkids, and recently greatgrandkids. Her interest in my life and ministry. And above all her prayers.

It is this last item that I believe affects me the most. Mom always prayed for me. Daily. She prayed for my husband, my daughter, my friends when I asked her to. She prayed until God answered, asking me weeks later how so-and-so was doing. 


She also prayed for my ministry and for every speaking engagement. As I seek to expand my speaking ministry in the months ahead, I am already missing her prayer covering. It was real and powerful. I knew God's power in and through me as I spoke to individuals about balance and serving and using the unique way God designed them to bring him glory and find meaning and joy in their lives.


So now I am searching for some pray-ers who will be a shield for me, praying for me and my ministry, especially on the days when I prepare and speak. If you are someone who would commit to regularly pray for me in this area (you define what regularly is), please let me know. I will be sure to let my shield-bearers know what my speaking schedule is and what my current needs are.


God took Mom in his perfect timing. Now I am counting on him to raise up a shield around me.

Feeling Virtuous and Chipper

I saw a full-page ad this week in TIME magazine that said, "Nurture Nature." SunChips, which I happen to like, now makes its bags with plants so they're 100% compostable.

Ah, now it's virtuous to eat chips. In fact, eating chips will help the planet. How can I not do it?

There are a few caveats, though. The asterisk tells me it's only the 10.5 ounce bag that's made with the new material, so it doesn't mean getting the 1.5 ounce bag at Subway does anything good for the environment. Plus, I don't compost. And if I eat the 10.5 ounce bag instead, well, my salt and calorie intake might be enough that it's my body that will be doing the composting.

But if you have the choice between a family-size bag of SunChips and some other chip, choose the SunChips. Let's hope it's successful enough that all sizes of SunChips will soon come in compostable bags. And that other chip manufacturers will soon follow suit. Then all chips will be virtuous. Les would think that's heaven.

P.S. Congratulations to Mandy Bell for winning the copy of Here Burns My Candle.

The Power of One

Charlie's only 7. But the Haitian earthquake deeply affected him and he wanted to do something. So he decided he would ride his bike around his local park and ask people to donate for each lap, with the hope of raising £500, the equivalent of about $761, for UNICEF. So far Charlie, and the publicity he's gotten for caring and acting, has raised £209,584.69, which translates to $319,000! You can check out his webpage here. That's the power of one person doing the hard thing and deciding to make a difference.

In Start Here, which I reviewed two weeks ago, the Harris brothers say this: "Many people . . . fail to understand a basic principle of life: changing something in your life requires changing something in your life." In other words, do something! I fear sometimes I fall into the category of people Les describes as those who believe that saying you will do something is as good as doing it. I have a good idea, but often get distracted before I ever act on it. And that changes nothing.

Tom Henderson is another person who knows one person can make a difference. After watching a tragedy unfold a decade ago, he brought an idea for a disaster kit to his local Rotary Club. ShelterBox has been active in Haiti since the earthquake, providing boxes containing a 10-person tent, cooking supplies, blankets and even crayons. You can read the TIME magazine article or watch the video. Or visit the ShelterBox website to learn more or donate.

What hard thing have you thought of that now you need to actually start doing? One person does have the power to make a difference—and it can be YOU!

P.S. Congrats to Jacque Fessenden, the winner of the free copy of Start Here.

Serving Those Who've Served—And a Book for You!

Liz Curtis Higgs spent years making women laugh at her speaking engagements, on video, and with her first books. In the late '90s she wrote Bad Girls of the Bible (and its sequels), combining fiction and nonfiction to teach us lessons on life. Then she moved into historical fiction transferring the Biblical story of Jacob to 18th-century Scotland in her Lowlands of Scotland series.

Higgs must love Scotland for now she is back with Here Burns My Candle. (See the trailer here.) Having loved the first Scottish series, I couldn't resist Waterbrook Multnomah's offer of a free copy to review. (I know,  I know, just 5 days ago I said I was trying not to accept review copies; I can't help it; it's an addiction.)

This book was just the mental escape I needed from my current stress. It, too, is the retelling of a biblical story, but I won't tell you which one so you don't know too much of the end before the beginning. It's thoroughly set up for the sequel, due out next spring.

The story revolves around the Kerr family in Edinburgh, particularly Lady Elizabeth Kerr and her husband Lord Donald. Donald's widowed mother doesn't accept the beautiful Elizabeth, a humble seamstress before Donald married her. When bonny Prince Charlie arrives in Edinburgh on his way to reclaim the throne for his father, the Kerr men join his army and Elizabeth, her mother-in-law, and her sister-in-law become those who wait and watch. Family secrets and sins threaten both family ties and livelihoods.

The war intrudes on the lives of the Kerrs in the same ways it does on the lives of military families in the 21st century. Fear, heartache, rumors, misinformation, changing loyalties, and disfiguring injuries plague the family and their countrymen. The story unwinds in a way that kept me reading and rooting for a marriage that seemed doomed to fail. You'll have to read it yourself to find out what the outcome is. If you want your own copy, you might win one by making a comment below. A winner will be chosen on Easter Sunday. Or you can buy your own copy through this link.

War has intruded into many American lives this decade as well. Maybe you're one of the mothers who waits. If so, check out Military Moms or Blue Star Mothers for encouragement. All of us can find ways to encourage military members on Linda Jewell's Support Our Troops weekly blog.

Thankfully, in our generation, fewer soldiers die from their war injuries. But it means many need to move through society with new limitations. If, like Lady Elizabeth you are good with a needle, consider joining Sew Much Comfort, an organization that creates adaptive clothing for those in military hospitals.

Let's not forget those who have served us by serving their country. Pray for them. Lady Elizabeth learns the power of prayer as she waits for Lord Donald. It's a power that still serves us well.