How I Prepare My Home for the Sabbath!
Hello friends! Today, I'm looking forward to sharing how my I prepare my home for our weekly day of rest which we celebrate on Friday evening into Saturday evening.
We believe that when God gave His people the commandment to "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it Holy," it was not a harsh rule to bondage people “for the sake of it,” it was a loving gift to be utilized to draw us closer to Him. Jesus clarifies in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." It's grown us closer as a family, as well as with our relationship with Him. We wish we started honoring this day way earlier!
We don't keep the Sabbath out of “legalism,” or to “earn salvation.” We do it out of love and obedience for our God that we believe put every law in place for our benefit because He loves us and ultimately has the best intention for our lives! Being asked to rest one day a week? Coolest gift ever!
Today, I'm sharing how I prepare my home for this special day so I can rest with the least amount of distractions! I hope it helps and inspires some of you to choose rest in your minds and hearts as you draw closer to Him! Enjoy!
1. Strip the sheets
I don't know about you, but I tend to fall off the “wash your sheets regularly” wagon. Before you get grossed out by me, haha, my husband and I shower every night before bed, so I’d say our sheets are relatively cleaner than those who shower in the morning! ;-) Since there's nothing like climbing into a bed with fresh sheets, I wash everyone's sheets early Friday morning. This allows them to dry, and be place back on our beds to make an extra special start to our Sabbath night, and maintain some order in our home!
2. Clean the floors
OH, the floors, the floors, the floors. As a mama of two, soon to be mama of three, the floors are something I’m constantly sweeping, spot cleaning, and vacuuming. I use Friday afternoon as an opportunity to deep clean our floors with our professional Shark steam cleaner that we got from Target! It gives me extra peace of mind knowing I won’t be stepping on any crumbs during my Sabbath which makes me reach less for the broom, and more for relaxation!
3. Throw in a load of laundry...early!
Attacking laundry in the afternoon just doesn't work for this mama. Ever forget and leave washed laundry in your washer machine...overnight? In order to avoid this, and not get overwhelmed by laundry, I do one large load Friday morning that I’m responsible for folding and putting away in time for our Sabbath festivities.
4. Utilize the crock pot!
What do I do about dinner on Sabbath days? Of course sometimes I drop the ball, and in advance we end up ordering in, but when I'm in good preparation, I either prepare a soup early Friday, or use the crock pot for a delicious easy recipe that last us through the weekend! Yum!
5. Put a majority of the kids toys away
Put away majority of toys and books, and leave only a few intentional toys, books, coloring books, activities, and such for your kids to focus on. (We do this by putting their excess toys in their closet, temporarily.) By doing so, you will avoid spending your Sabbath day of rest glaring at the majority of your children's toys slung around the house. Instead, you will only have a few toys lying around, and because there are only few, they may actually even be played with majority of the time! Shocker, haha!
6. Run and empty the dishwasher
I used to start a load in the dishwasher just in time for the Sabbath. However, I soon began to realize that it only resulted in my dishes piling up high in the sink! I recently decided to not only run the load before our Sabbath, but to unload it as well, leaving an empty dishwasher that is ready to load! This is extremely helpful because once you've finished a meal, you can immediately load your utensils, plates, and cups into the dishwasher! You can also use paper plates and cups to avoid this altogether!
7. Remove all garbage throughout the house
Getting the garbage out of our bathrooms, kitchen, and main living space is a great way to start our Sabbath off right! Having fresh, empty garbage bags, and not having to worry about our house wreaking throughout the weekend makes for a more relaxing evening! #nonstopdiapers
8. Turn off social media
I do my best to remove unnecessary distractions and stay off social media during the Sabbath. My goal is to use that time to disconnect from the world, and further focus on my relationship with God. Of course, I aim to do this everyday, but having a specific day of rest from social media is probably one of the healthiest things you can do, and it shows great discipline for what's really important!
9. Ten minute speed clean each room
While I definitely don't get to realistically "deep clean" every room in my house before the Sabbath, I do like to set a timer, play some music, and do a 10 min speed clean in each room. During this time, I focus on picking things up off the floor, putting them back in their place, wiping countertops, cleaning toilets, sinks, etc.
10. Bathe the kids
This has been a fun tradition every Friday! Throughout the week, our kids are often outside in nature, digging and catching worms in the dirt, exploring the woods, and playing in water! Sometimes we get home so late, we check for ticks, and put them straight to bed. It's nice to have one day a week where we know our kids are getting a good scrub, and starting the Sabbath off squeaky-clean!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the ways I prepare my house for the Sabbath! My desire is that this may help you feel more prepared to have your own day of rest! Do you and your family celebrate the Sabbath? Tell me a bit about what you all do! Shabbat shalom! (Peaceful Sabbath!)
Cool, Calm, Collectedly Yours,
