I think that most of us have at least heard of making Sunday a day of rest…making it holy…making it the Lord’s day. How many of us, I wonder, have ever taken that to heart and put it into action?

On the surface, it seems that we’re supposed to abstain from work on Sundays (and go to mass, of course) as a way of making time to praise God. In my opinion, though, that’s really not the idea that God had in mind. I came to this way of thinking after dabbling in the whole “take Sunday off from work” concept.

As a single mother, you know that 7 days a week are not enough to get everything done that needs doing, so how in the world can you even entertain the idea of taking one off?! I know….I know…I’m in your shoes. But, you know what? The magic is in the doing.

God is amazing and He does not get near enough credit for his intelligence (or his love for us). God teaches us through example – in the creation story, did He not rest on the 7th day?! AND…how many of us mothers have used good, old fashioned bribery (or threats even) to get our kids to do things we knew would be good for them? Perhaps this is where God was coming from when He made one of the commandments all about taking one day/week to rest:

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work…

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

- Exodus 20: 10 – 11

Over the years, I’ve tried again and again to take Sundays off from “regular life.”  No housework…no client work.  I was able to accomplish that for part of a Sunday now and then, but never really felt the glory in doing that.  It was too half hearted on my part and I was too busy being anxious about what wasn’t getting done and what would have to be done the next day to make up for not doing it today.  Who can rest with thoughts like that making them a bundle of nerves?

There’s another bit of wisdom from God in the bible (yes…there’s more than just one more bit of God’s wisdom there, but this particular one I’m alluding to has to do with the message I’m trying to convey here)….

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”                                                                                 – Philippians 4:6-7

(The highlighting is mine. )

So what is God’s message to us?  He didn’t mince words so there’s no guessing involved here.

Take one day a week off from work and don’t be anxious about it!

It’s not easy.  We’re busy, busy people and, along with that, comes many worries.  Believe me, though, this commandment is for us, not for God. (waiting for lightning to strike me….)

That’s not such a scandalous idea, though, is it?  I think all the commandments are for us…everything God has taught us is for us.  He wants us to be happy and healthy and he told us exactly how to achieve both AND, by the way, living according to His will/ideas/laws will also lead us to heaven and an eternity of being happy …with Him!

It’s simple, really.  But we silly humans make it complicated.  (remember the lesson from God about becoming like little children in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven?  Little children simply trust and go with it, not second guessing or thinking they know better (that comes a bit later in life).

(I know…little children do love to say “NO!”  but I’m going to ignore that for now because it messes up my message. )

My point being….trust God.  He loves us…He’s wiser than we are…He knows and wants what’s good for us…so take Him at his word.  An “easy” way of testing that theory is to try taking Sundays off!  See what happens!

Okay, I can only speak for myself, but here’s what I noticed when I actually took a Sunday off….

I was recharged and facing another week was a bit easier.

I had fun!  Even if I didn’t actually do anything one would consider to be “fun,” I still had it.  It was fun to be forced to not do housework or client work.  I didn’t feel guilty about sitting in my favorite chair and reading a book…or a magazine (or two or three).  After all…I was on “vacation.”

This, of course, gives you more time to really focus on your kids, too.  You might even find yourself at such a loss for what to do with yourself that you seek your kids out and try to entice them to play games with you…or go for a walk…or watch a movie (or two or three).  Or perhaps you haven’t baked in a while?  Or gardened? (I love to garden so I don’t consider it to be work that I should avoid on Sunday. )

Remember, it’s your children’s day off, too. (but don’t force it on them…they learn best by example)

AND, I find that it’s also fun to look forward to the next Sunday and being able to REST!!!  When you schedule that day off each week, you find yourself preparing for it.  I have magically started doing laundry each Saturday…and doing housecleaning things…and catching up on client work.  Anything that is not completed on Saturday simply waits.  This “taking Sundays off” thing has led me to become more organized before Sunday comes. And that helps life to go more smoothly. (Ahhh…God’s wisdom at work.)

God knows what we need and, if we follow His lead, we’ll also come to an understanding of His wisdom.  It’s very cool how that works.

I wish you a lovely and work-free, anxiety-free Sunday.  ENJOY!!!

May God bring peace to us all. (He will, you know, if we trust Him)

Manya

P.S.  Let me know how YOU spent your day off!

I hope 2010 was a good year for you…that progress was made towards healing and happiness for you and your families.

2010 was a very challenging year for me and my family.  The first 6 months saw my mother’s struggle with alzheimers increase by leaps and bounds.  In July, she passed on to heaven.  I miss her but I’m so happy that her struggles have come to an end.  My father (her husband of 68 years!!!) still struggles with his loss but he is doing really well.  After the initial, overwhelming sadness and fear over being without her, he has settled into acceptance and finds great strength in his faith.  Our parents continue to teach us til the end!  I will be forever grateful for all my parents taught me in this life.

During my mothers illness and after her death, my business suffered from my being away from it (physically AND emotionally) during that time.  I am a Virtual Assistant – I work with small business owners and nonprofit directors, handling their administrative and online marketing needs.  I’m happy to say that my clients were very understanding and stuck with me through those difficult days.  (May God bless them all!)   The second half of the year, I was completely overwhelmed with trying to catch up and then stay on top of their needs. It was such a challenge that I let one client go, as of the beginning of January, so that I could get back to some balance in my life. (i.e.  less time devoted to client work…more time devoted to family and “down” time)  This will mean a tightening of our belts around here, but it’s a change that’s worth the cost.

Due to all of the above, this blog was sorely neglected by me!

My New Year’s resolutions:

• No client work on Sundays!
• Make progress towards no “work” of any kind on Sundays!! (Remember how we’re supposed to “Keep the Lord’s day holy”…?  There is a huge amount of wisdom in that.)
• Make progress towards rest and relaxation on Sundays…do only those things that are enjoyable (I enjoy working in the garden so I don’t strictly classify that as work. )
• Post to this blog on Sundays.
• Drink at least one green smoothie each day.  (this is my “get physically healthier” resolution…see www.greensmoothiegirl.com for more info…I highly recommend this!)
• Keep striving towards giving God control of my life (so far so good…some wonderful and totally unexpected blessings have come my way recently.  God DOES love to surprise and delight us…especially when we let him do the driving. )
• Oh…and I might actually start a newsletter this year (finally….)

So…if all goes as planned, this blog will be updated more than once every month or so!  Thank you to all who have been loyal followers  in my absence!  I can’t tell you how much that means to me and how that motivates me to continue here.

I’m looking forward to what is in store for us this year…and to what we MAKE of this year!

A request….when you find that a post is “right on the mark”….or when you take issue with a post…or when you have something to add…please, please, please leave a comment.  This can be done anonymously, so please don’t hesitate to join in here!  Your thoughts will make the content here richer.

May God bless and bring peace to us all!

Manya

I highly recommend that you check out Coming Home Catholic.  It’s a great place to go for information and direction when it comes to teaching your children about our fantastic faith.  It’s also a great place to go to teach yourself more about our faith….

Here’s a link to today’s newsletter – Coming Home Catholic Newsletter

Be sure to sign up to receive the newsletter each week via email.  The family who writes it really knows the Catholic faith and how to make it easy to understand….and how to thoroughly understand it!  Follow some of their links and see where they take you.  It’s pretty awesome.

Have a lovely Friday…and may God bless you and bring you peace.

Manya

Are your kids counting down the days til the 1st day of summer vacation? Mine are! Actually, so am I!

I love it when my kids are out of school. I taught my kids at home for 12 years and loved having them home all the time, the freedom of deciding for ourselves what we’d study and when and not being tied to someone else’s schedule! AND I loved not having to get up extra early to get the kids to school. Ugh.

During the school year, we get to bed by about 10 (my youngest is 14 so she’s allowed to stay up later now) so that we can be awake enough at 6am to function at least on a rudimentary level. During the summer, however, I find that we stay up later and later as the summer goes on, which is great for going out for late walks and then still having time to watch a movie!

What are your plans for summer?

I think family vacations are VERY important and love to go on them. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to go on long ones like we used to but we still get out AT LEAST for long weekends now and then. Of course, as my children get older, it’s becoming nearly impossible to find times when we can all get away together.

However, we’re planning to go on a one night camping trip soon just a few hours from here at The Great Sand Dunes. We’ve been wanting to go there for years and, if the weather cooperates, this will be the year that it happens. This time of year, for a short time, water runs through the park and we’re hoping to catch that and have warm enough weather to actually be able to play in it! And, of course, we’ll be getting lots of exercise by hiking up the dunes and sliding down on sleds. I’m excited.

This year, my children are taking some vacations together, which I think is wonderful! My two oldest daughters have already booked two weeks in Boston & New York. When they get back from there, my son and second oldest daughter will be driving to CA and Vancouver. (Yes, I’m nervous about this but they’re old enough and it’ll be a great adventure for them. So, time for Mom to grit her teeth, bear it and let go… ) My youngest will be spending some time with her grandparents. Then, hopefully, sometime in August we’ll all find time to take a driving vacation together for a week.

A few months ago, we headed to Seattle for the weekend because there was a last minute, fantastic air fare sale that I couldn’t pass up.  I’m so glad I jumped at the chance because fares haven’t been as low since and, actually, the very next day they shot up again. We’d not been to Seattle together before and had a great time “discovering” it.  It was kind of strange standing in the original Starbucks and thinking that it was once the only one in the world!  And the Hoh Rainforest was amazing!!!

We tend to take whirlwind vacations these days because we need to take advantage of the day or two when two or three (or all?!) of us have time to get away. Last year, my oldest and youngest and I jumped in the car and drove down to Durango (a 6 hour drive), spent one night and came back the next day.  Craziness? To lots of people, yes, but we had a blast.  And, strangely enough, it “seemed” like we’d been gone much longer than we were. Durango is a beautiful town to walk around AND Mesa Verde National Park is not far from there.  We spent the afternoon there but most of it happened to be closed at that time of year.  Still, we saw enough to know that we want to go back!

At the end of June, my oldest daughter and I will be attending the Catholic New Media conference in San Antonio! I’m really looking forward to that. Let me know if you’ll be there so we can meet in person. It’s going to be wonderful to meet the Catholic bloggers and podcasters who I’ve come to ‘know’ over the years.

Family vacations are all about getting away from the “everyday” for a little while (or a long while, if you can) and making memories – together. Memories….make lots of good ones that you will all cherish for the rest of your lives.  And the bond those memories create between you and your children is priceless!

Remember, time away together does not have to be a big production.  When we don’t have the time or money to really get away, we’ll spend a day being tourists in downtown Denver and that’s a great time, too. 

God bless you and yours and may you experience more of His amazing creation (including each other) – together.

Manya