by Jody Token,
When it comes to taking care of your body, mind and spirit, remembering the Sabbath day is an important spiritual discipline. Rest is just as important as activity. After a good workout, your body needs rest to recover. The same goes for everyday life! In fact, it's so important that God even recorded it as a part of the Ten Commandments:
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Exodus 20:8
My daughter, Megan, is a senior in college and struggles with perfectionism and anxiety. Can anyone relate?
But she has discovered the joy of Sabbath rest.
“I'm a workaholic,” she confessed. “I get in a zone and I can’t stop being productive. If I don’t stop and remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, my body will crash,” she says.
Now, she sees Sabbath as a gift. Her Sabbath provides motivation to work hard all week so on Sunday, she can enjoy church with her friends, receive the means of grace through the Word, remember her identity in Christ through baptism and receive faith nutrition through communion. Her intentional effort to protect the Sabbath day now protects her from burnout and exhaustion. She is refreshed and refueled for a new week.
She doesn’t allow her “to-do” list to enter into her Sabbath day. Instead, she gives it to God and He gives her rest and joy. Not every week is perfect, but it’s a pattern of living that has brought order to her routine. Now on Sunday afternoons she takes time to hang out with friends, lay on the couch, do art projects, plays her ukulele or go for a hike.
It’s important to have a healthy view of spiritual disciplines like honoring the Sabbath Day, prayer, fasting, and service so these disciplines do not become legalistic activities. Starting with the correct mindset will help you and your daughter enjoy spiritual disciplines and not despise them.
Even Martin Luther in his explanation of the commandment to honor the Sabbath Day said, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”
Consider spiritual disciplines as gifts from your heavenly father to gladly hear and learn. God promises to meet us where we are through these disciplines. He promises to extend his grace and blessings. He promises to meet us in these quiet places.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:10
We enter into a spiritual discipline NOT to earn God’s love, but because we already have it.
We have his complete love and affection through Jesus. From a position of gratitude, we enter into spiritual disciplines. We don’t serve God in order to get more from Him. He has given us everything through Jesus. He is our great reward. When our motivation changes from “have to” to “want to” our entire Christian perspective shifts. Suddenly, you will see everything as a “good and perfect gift (James 1:17)” including commandments and spiritual disciplines.
Consider sitting down with your family to prioritize Sabbath rest into your schedule and to discuss its benefits. Ask questions like:
How can you structure your week so that the Sabbath day is kept holy?
What activities do you need to prioritize to give your family the gift of Sabbath rest?
What would you do if the Sabbath day was free to rest and enjoy?
(A big shout out to my daughter, Megan Token for sharing her story. She is a psychology major at Asbury University and is an advocate for mental health awareness. Follow her blog at “The Peace He Gives” Blog https://megantoken.blogspot.com/)
Jody Token, along with Dannah Gresh, Staci Rudolph, and other women who love tweens, writes daily devos for True Girl subscribers. the creator and coach of The Great Flip, online self-defense, safety and faith-filled empowerment for girls age six and up at www.thegreatflip.com.
Looking for more ways to bring wellness into your daily lives?! Check out the all new True Girl subscription box! This month, we are shipping THE WELLNESS BOX! It contains all the great stuff you need to complete a simple but life-changing month of mom+daughter wellness!
The daily devos in this month's subscription box will help you and your girl will dive into a conversation about both physical and spiritual wellness. (And she'll love the fun tools we're including to make it practical...like a CamelBak water bottle she can decorate with her own set of True Girl stickers, a jump rope that tracks her jumps, and a True Girl pedometer wrist watch.) Together, you’ll tackle questions such as “what does it look like to be physically well?” and “Why should it be important to us?” Your box will include everything you need to kick off a month-long wellness challenge!
