REST
One of my favorite verses is:
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
I don’t think we really appreciate the gift of rest God has given us, until we are adults, maybe even 30+ years old. We don’t accept the gift of rest God offers us and encourages us to take. When we are young, we seem to always be on the go. We first play all the hours we can, and then work all the hours we can. We never want to go to bed. My younger kids always want to read one more story or watch one more movie. The older married kids go out for late movies or for appetizers after 10 pm when it’s cheaper. I used to think it legalistic to take a day of rest on Saturday or Sunday. But, it’s definitely the way God made our bodies, and we need that rest.
The last year or so, I’ve been doing our Sunday’s different and nothing so dramatic that it bothered the kids. I either make muffins Saturday night for Sunday breakfast or put out English Muffins for Sunday morning. I don’t want a sink full of dishes to do when we get home from church. It’s much easier cleaning up crumbs off the breakfast counter. I still like to have a nice Sunday dinner after church, but the crockpot does most of the work. I put frozen beef roast, ham roast or chicken in the night before along with potatoes and carrots. Sometimes I still put something in the oven that I can set the oven timer with, so when we get home from church, it’s all set to go!
And, instead of getting out the best dinnerware, I use good paper plates and sometimes paper cups as well. It makes for a calmer afternoon, not having to push the kids to wash a dozen plus of each and getting clean-up done much quicker. And, for the crockpot, I love the liners that can go into them! MUCH quicker clean-up.
As a mom, there’s still always “work” to do, even on Sundays, but if I can lessen it some, it gives us all a break from the usual routine. AND, I can get my Sunday afternoon nap that I so look forward to! It definitely gives a different tone, for the day of rest.
. . . finished
Joining Lisa-Jo and her Five Minute Friday.
” five minutes of free writing without worrying about getting it right “
Writing Canvas 
Hi Loni,
One of my favorite verses, and your plan for Sunday and your nap sound absolutely divine and inspired…Cheering for you 🙂
I think it’s really great you’ve found a rhythm to your weekends that allow you the ease of fellowship and family without the burden of extra work. I think I tend to forgo it altogether because it can drain me but I like the idea of simplifying things so that the pace is still slow enough for a nap but there is still the gathering of friends or family.
I am visiting from FMF.. I agree with you, we dont take advantage of the rest God provides for us. I think God gives us places to softly land, and sometimes we turn out back to that.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts …. love your blog
Amen to Sabbathing on purpose. 🙂 May we embrace the gift rest can be….not simply out of obedience…..but out of the hunger we have for it….if we’re brave enough to acknowledge that…
We do tend to forget what Sabbath is all about. God rested and so should we.
Dear Loni
Oh, we do get wiser as we get older, don’t we! I don’t know about you guys in America, but in South Africa we have what we call beskuit (Rusks). That is our favorite breakfast if we need a bit of time off!
Much love
Mia
Thanks Loni for your tips to make Sunday less manic! And I NEED to remember to pick up those crockpot liners! With energy goes the memory! 🙂 Have a blessed weekend!
Loni – You ROCK! This is such a wonderful way to DO Sundays. I love it. Thanks for sharing today and reminding me that God WANTS us to rest. You go girl!
I think that not only do we not take full advantage of Gods gift of rest, we seldom even view it as a gift.
Oh, that’s what I’m missing–the paper plates!:) Now that I’m in the 30 something category, I can agree with you. there’s something to His offer to rest. and taking advantage of His request for an entire day at that is something I now take seriously. So glad you find the same! {HUGS}