A holy time out

Did your parents ever give you a time out? Did you ever give your kids a time out? Although we often use it for various reasons to control a child’s behavior, the original idea behind a time out was to remove a child from a situation where he/she was acting out and allow them a few minutes to regain control of themselves. Even today, when my teenager has had a sleepover where there was little sleeping (remember those days?), I usually have her spend some time in her room alone, resting and getting herself back together. I know other moms who do the same.

What about adults? Can we or should we use a time out? Think about the last time you were truly frustrated with your spouse, your boss, your kids, a friend (you fill in the blank). When tensions start to run high and the volume gets raised and you find yourself getting angry, is it ever really constructive to continue? Don’t we usually do better if we take some kind of break and gather our thoughts before we say something we will regret later? We can always apologize for things said in the heat of the moment, but we can never really take them back once they are out there. A cleansing deep breath always does wonders.

I think God knows that humans need to rest. I think he knows we are often apt to let our passions run away with us. These include passions for work, sports, social media, the people in our lives and any other thing we allow to consume us. That’s why he gave us the Sabbath, a kind of holy time out.

God rested after creation. He created for six days and then he rested. Genesis 2:3 says, “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because he rested from the work of creating he had done.” He thought the day of rest was so important, it made the Ten Commandments. When the Israelites were in the desert, they weren’t even allowed to gather manna on the Sabbath.

I was recently watching an Andy Griffith re-run and was reminded that for many years, modern-day Christians observed the Sabbath. Andy, Aunt Bea and Opie were sitting on the front porch visiting with neighbors. There was nothing else for them to do. Everything was closed. I remember everything being closed on Sundays. I remember it being inconvenient. Ah, inconvenience, that’s not a word we like at all in our modern living. Like toddlers, we want it all and we want it now.

There are a few large businesses who have bucked the Sunday trend. Chic-fil-A has never been opened on Sundays even if they were forced to leave the mall over it. Hobby Lobby has a sign on the door saying they are closed on Sundays so their employees can spend time with their families. These organizations seem to do just fine without operating on Sundays even if it does cause some inconvenience to customers.

What about us as individuals? How do we do with Sabbath rest? I’m not talking about going to church on Sundays. Yes, we are supposed to do that, but what about the rest part? What about the time out? I confess, I do laundry and ironing on Sundays. I have to get ready for the week ahead. There ere even sporting events on Sundays which never was the case twenty years ago. I often go grocery shopping on Sundays. Many times Sunday turns out to be a running day from early church to bed time, but should it be? Could I change that?

I read a great book this summer called Wonder Struck, by Margaret Feinberg and she had a chapter called the Wonder of the Sabbath. She talked about how it took a lot of planning ahead, like lunch and dinner in the crock pot, but she was able to find a lot of peace in observing a day of rest. I know we are busy. Taking an entire day of rest while trying to raise kids seems next to impossible, but maybe I could start with an hour. Maybe I could take that hour and read the Bible or an inspirational book and have a cup of coffee out on the porch alone. Maybe I could take that time to talk to God or to write in a prayer journal. Maybe  I could cook dinner ahead. Maybe I could iron ahead. Taking a little time to rest shouldn’t be impossible especially since God says it’s necessary. Maybe I should take some steps to make this a priority.

I’m going to spend some time praying about this one. I think I could use a holy time out. What about you? How do you observe the Sabbath?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy  🙂