Our second Sabbath experience was a good one. Earlier in the week, I
typed up a list of possible things to do. It helped a lot to have
ideas instead of staring at each other wondering what to do next.

Where we struggled, though, was not having some things prepared
beforehand. We spent more time Saturday morning getting ideas ready
rather than just doing them.

We wanted our two year old to listen to some dvd's instead of watch
them, so my husband converted them over to mp3's. And I had some
children's activity sheets printed out for her to work on, but hadn't
cut out the cards for the matching game we wanted to play.

In the future, we need to prepare beforehand for what we'd like to do
or just choose something else that needs no preparation.

Another area I struggled a little with was keeping my mind focused in
the morning. I kept bringing up daily things to talk about with my
husband, then realizing that I needed to redirect my thoughts toward
God.

I hope this gets easier with time because it's hard to break old
habits. And I don't like knowing how hard it is for me to keep my
mind on the things of God. In our Bible reading last week we read
that God desires us to stay focused on Him throughout the whole
Sabbath. If we aren't thinking, learning, studying, meditating, or
praying then we should be resting our bodies.

We knew that we didn't want our two year old to watch tv because it
would be a distraction to my husband and I. So we tried letting her
listen to some of her Bible based dvd's put to mp3's. I still
couldn't focus on what I needed to work on, so we decided that we
would let her listen to Bible based cd's in her toy room. She enjoyed
that (probably because it was new and different!) and we were also
able to bring in her cd player when we sat down to eat together and
continue to listen to her music.

In the afternoon, my husband and I did two sections of a Bible study
and listened to a sermon on cd. We each did some separate Bible
reading and worked as a family on our memory verse. My daughter and I
played a Jesus matching game together and, when I was laying down, my
husband read her some books that tied animal traits to the character
traits of God.

Something my husband and I look forward to is a nap. Because the kids
are rarely asleep at the same time, we found that trading off watching
them gives both of us a turn for a nap!

So overall, this Sabbath was much more rewarding. I never found
myself looking at the clock. I wasn't in a rush to get back to
"normal" life when it was over. And my body and spirit got some
needed rest which was helpful in fighting off the stomach flu that I
came down with Saturday evening.

A few friends who have observed Sabbath for years gave us some helpful
advice this week. We learned terms such as "Nazarene Baptists" and
"Seventh Day Baptists," which we previously didn't know exsisted.

We would love to hear more from others about your experiences of
keeping the Sabbath and any suggestions you might have for families
who are just starting out!

Until next week,
Lisa G.

Attached is the list of Sabbath activities we started this week. We
will continue to add to our list as we get new ideas.