This article is part of a series titled The Ten Commandments in Parenting. In it, parents explore how each of the Ten Commandments shapes them, their parenting, and their families.
For parents of babies and young children, the word “tired” has new levels of meaning. Pregnant moms in their first trimester know the fight it is to keep their eyes open during waking hours. New moms and dads know the exhaustion from nights filled with interrupted, too-short stretches of sleep interspersed with nursing and rocking babies. It’s no wonder that a parent’s definition of rest can be shaped through the lens of caregiving, sleep, and bodily energy—or lack thereof.
Had you asked me what rest was back in those baby days, I would have answered something about getting more sleep or a break from my parental tasks. But having been a parent for some years now, I’m learning that rest is so much more.
Rest Is A God Thing
Sabbath, from the Hebrew word for rest, began in the very beginning, when God himself rested on the seventh day after six days of creation (Gen. 2:2-3). God didn’t need rest the way human beings need sleep, but he chose to rest. In a world that puts such high value on productivity and optimization, isn’t this a thought full of wonder? It reminds us that God’s act of creation is more the work of an artist than the machine-building of a utilitarian. Like an artist setting down the paintbrush to gaze at his work, God chose to take a pause not because he required it, but simply because he wanted to. To God, rest is good.
The next place we see Sabbath mentioned in Scripture is when God rains down daily manna to feed the Israelites (Ex. 16). He provides a double portion on the sixth day so the people can rest from their daily food collection on the seventh day of the week.
Shortly after, God institutes the Sabbath as the Fourth Commandment on Mount Sinai (Ex. 20:8-11). The command harkens back to God’s rest on the seventh day of creation, marking the nation of Sabbath-keepers as God’s own people.
In the following years, the Law with all its rituals and holidays pictured what God intended the Sabbath to be for his people. The rhythm of work and rest was good and necessary for the physical health of God’s people and the productivity of the land. The Sabbath day freed time for worship and offering sacrifices to God, which commemorated and celebrated God’s act of delivering Israel from Egypt.
Together, the presence of worship and the intentional pause of productive labor was a beacon that announced God as Israel’s rightful Lord, as her provider and deliverer.
The Gift of The Fourth Commandment
The ancient truth of a God who saves and provides for his people has not changed. And neither has the truth that people are needy and dependent for something outside themselves.
We may have resources at our disposal (we aren’t waiting for our family’s food to fall from the sky) but there is still much in our parenting that we can’t generate for our kids. The more parenting years we have behind us, the more we parents see our need for God.
The good news is that God is both our provider and deliverer, now and all the days of our lives. He delivered us from our sins through Jesus on the cross, securing for us the one outcome we can’t do without. In him we have life abundant as God’s children now and forevermore. In light of our adoption, the regular commemoration of God’s being our provider and deliverer is a gift for God’s people. Sabbath is a gift for a people who can rest because our heavenly Father is our ever present refuge and strength.
How can we steward our families’ time and resources to take hold of the gift of Sabbath? Besides church being the regular gathering of God’s people to celebrate his work, here are some suggestions for practicing Sabbath look like in our families today.
Practicing Sabbath In Our Families
To practice Sabbath in our families is to cultivate the habits that commemorate God’s faithfulness and declare our dependence on him to provide for us. It can look differently depending on the ages of your children and the stage of life your family is in.
Here are a few questions that help us picture how our families can practice Sabbath:
- How might your family keep track of answered prayers?
- What are some ways your family can celebrate God’s provision and care?
- Which productivity-related tasks or projects can we lay to rest for a time, on a regular basis, as a declaration that we can rest because God provides?
- What actions or words can we use, what prayers we can pray, to help us entrust our projects and goals to the Lord?
A family might practice sabbath with a special outing that’s capped off with the message, “We can have fun because God provides us with everything we need.”
Celebrating as a family can look like a “nobody cooks” day—getting takeout (for the whole meal or in part) from a place that’s not the usual, or heading to a restaurant.
Recalling how God has answered prayers can be done around the table, or written down and collected to be read out loud.
For parents and older children, practicing Sabbath can be setting aside a chunk of time normally spent on the work that we feel compelled to do, and devoting that time towards enjoying a hobby, physically resting, or meaningful time with others.
Deep Rest
Parents, perhaps we’ve equated rest to the feeling of relaxation or of being care-free. If that’s the definition, then we may (ironically) question our rest, “Am I resting right? Am I resting enough? What if I can’t relax?”
I love this author’s rendering of the Sabbath principle—she defines Sabbath as “a practiced refusal to believe everything depends on us.” Indeed, practicing Sabbath is an active declaration that our productivity belongs to God. Every time we put down our work to celebrate the Lord’s provision, we remind ourselves that he establishes our labors (Prov. 16:9).
Resting is to turn our eyes to our gracious Lord who holds our victories, and all our needs, in his hands (Prov. 21:31). He has provided for us so fully that even if our Sabbath days don’t feel free of all that’s laborious, our souls can breathe easy because Jesus has completed his work.
So as we enjoy the gift of the Sabbath days that the Lord has made, even as our incomplete work awaits us, and we wonder, “am I doing Sabbath right?”, let our rest point us to the reason we can really rest. There is nothing in the world that depends wholly on us. God has his eye on you and me and our families. What cause for celebration!
For a regular dose of gospel encouragement for parenting, listen to the Rooted Parent Podcast and the Asian American Parenting Podcast.
