A Simply Healthy by Caroline FauselSample

FAITH

Just like every other area of our lives, it takes intention and purpose to have a healthy faith! We don’t accidentally grow closer to God.

When I was growing up in the church, my menu of spiritual practices that was presented to me was quite narrow: read your Bible, go to church, and pray. All good things, right? But in recent years I was presented with a much larger menu of spiritual formation practices, and it has benefited my walk with God tremendously!

I was taught that Sabbath was an “Old Covenant,” an outdated mandate for the Jewish people. The Hebrew word Shabbat literally means “to stop” or “to rest,” and the day of Shabbat was originally mandated in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-10: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work.”

Instead, I have found it to be a gift that never expires. To be honest, the fact that it’s the only one of the Ten Commandments we have decided no longer applies to us should give us pause!

An entire day of Sabbath is a respite in an otherwise busy week. It keeps our family anchored to God. A command to stop all work might feel like a burden. But an invitation to stop work, rest and recuperate, and find delight and joy is an idea I can get behind!

I find many women are exhausted and just “over” it. We’re overbooked, overworked, and overcommitted. This is all a recipe for burnout, and many of us are feeling it.

As our family has practiced the Sabbath day for years now, we’ve realized that what it brings us is connection. To God, to ourselves, and to each other. It reminds us what our priorities in life are, and it brings our life’s purpose back into crystal clear focus. Time moves slowly but in the best way.

So let’s get practical: HOW do you practice the Sabbath? It comes in three phases: stop work, dwell with God, and delight. The things we choose to avoid on the Sabbath are work, housework, and yard work, most cooking, spending money, and technology. We prioritize dwelling with God however works best for each of us, and this will be unique to you!

This takes some preparation. We find it’s easier to rest in a clean house, so we do that in advance as much as possible. I also like to cook things for Sabbath the day before so it’s a whole day off! Have you ever tried to practice a Sabbath? If not, pray about it and ask God how he is inviting you into his rest and delight.