At Home Menu: Sabbath

Updated: Oct 19, 2021

This is a menu - don’t try to eat it all! Pick one or two suggestions to try at home.

“Our practices arise naturally out of our everyday activities as we reframe and redirect them toward new depth and breadth.” - Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

“Whatever works, works.” - Rev. Amelia Richardson Dress

(Printable menus are at bottom.)

For Adults

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice:
- Make a list of things that bring you joy. How can you incorporate more of these things into your life?....What “relaxation” or “down time” activities make you feel irritable and keyed-up, and which leave you feeling calmer and more connected? - Adapted from p. 57 of The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress
- If you need help identifying your most important types of rest and your least important, check out this list: https://ideas.ted.com/the-7-types-of-rest-that-every-person-needs/

Main Course: Tasting the practice:
- Try a full Sabbath practice for one day. No technology, no work. In what ways is this practice liberating? From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life:
- Pick a regular Sabbath day and choose a mantra for presence throughout the day. Each time you find yourself feeling pulled into distractions or worries, repeat something to yourself like, “I’m choosing to be present in this moment.” “I’m here now, I’ll be there later.” “The most important thing for me right now is to pay attention.” If you already have a centering prayer practice, you could try incorporating a breath prayer throughout the day to draw your attention back to the moment. That might be as simple as “Peace” or “Light of Christ.” Anytime you notice yourself distracted or restless say your mantra or breath prayer. - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice:
- Read Chapter 3, “Sabbath: Finding Presence Through Our Best Yes,” in The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress, available on Kindle

For Youth

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice:
- Keep a time journal for a day. Every time you switch tasks, make a note of what time it is and what task you’re doing. What activities are ones you’re consciously choosing? What activities are actually distractions? - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

Main Course: Tasting the practice:
- Sabbath Box: We can find rest at a ball game, a volunteer job, serving the community, or doing our household tasks. Rest means slowing our pace and even putting off until tomorrow what does not have to get done today. Rest can come in 5-minute, 30-minute, or hour increments. To practice the concept of Sunday Rest, consider an activity called the Sabbath Box. Locate a box in your home and then place what might distract you from a time of rest into the box. If the item is too big to fit in your box, write it on a piece of paper and place it in the box. This symbolic representation gives us a tangible way of putting aside those things that distract us. - Rosina Hendrickson

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life:
- Schedule a weekend day once a semester to keep a “radical Sabbath” with do’s and don’ts. Write your own rules beforehand, for example:
  - Don’t buy anything (making and selling it requires the work of other people, and buying it involves packaging that becomes garbage)
  - Don’t make to-do lists, homework, or do other things that get you thinking about work
  - Do go outside and take a walk
  - Do read or write for pleasure
  - Do turn your phone to silent or off. If you can’t put your phone down, set your alarm to chime every hour to remind you to take a 5 or 10 minute break away from your phone (Adapted from Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens)

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice:
- "Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, responsibilities, and accomplishments. Sabbath is a way of being in time where we remember who we are, remember what we know, and taste the gifts of spirit and eternity. Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves so, if we are lost, we can find our way back to our center." - Wayne Muller
- To see an overview of the meaning of Sabbath in the Bible, watch this five-minute animation from the Bible Project: https://youtu.be/PFTLvkB3JLM

For Kids:

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice:
- Fill out the Sabbath activities worksheet. (Download)

Main Course: Tasting the practice:
- Choose something that happens several times a day in your life, such as a dog barking, washing your hands, or logging on to a laptop at school. This is your “cue” to say an affirmation prayer silently to yourself: “The world is an amazing place” or “Yay, world! I am good.” Take a deep breath after you say your affirmation, to let the words sink into your body and mind. Try this for a week, and after a week write a new affirmation to use. - From https://www.realkidsrealfaith.org/practicing-presence/

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life:
- Clocks help us remember to “take time” for God. When you see a clock, stop and talk to God:

God, thank you for this day.

I love you.

Help me to “take time” to listen to you and to others.

Amen.

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice:
- Have fun filling out the “Why Sabbath?” word scramble challenge. (Download)

For Families:

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice
- Gather your family and wonder together:
  - I wonder what your favorite part of being together is?
  - I wonder what you want to do the next time we are together?
  - What is restful for us?
  - What do we need to take a break from?
- Set a date/time for your next family time.

Main Course: Tasting the practice
- Implement a “no-chores day.” Lock up your household tools for the day. This can be both silly and meaningful for younger kids. Make a “No work allowed” sign for your front door. You can probably generate some laughs if it says, “God says no working!” Have the kids hang it up at the beginning of your Sabbath time and take it down at the end. - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life
- If your family doesn’t pray regularly at meals, try marking Sabbath by being sure that you pray at one or all of the meals that day. Your Sabbath day might be one day a week where you read a Bible story at breakfast or dinner, and start or end with a blessing. Using a ritual frames your day of rest as a unique and sacred day. Here are some ideas:
  - “Thank you God for rest! May we find ourselves renewed by it.”
  - “May God bless this day and bless us in it.”
  - “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice
- Read the story of Jesus taking a rest in Matthew 14:13-23. In this story, we see Jesus making decisions about when to work and when to rest. Ask your kids how they know when it’s time to rest. Share or journal about your own thinking. How do you know when it’s time to rest? - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress
- For further reading, check out Sabbath in the Suburbs: A Family’s Experiment with Holy Time by MaryAnn McKibben-Dana: https://www.amazon.com/Sabbath-Suburbs-Familys-Experiment-Project/dp/0827235216/