Have You Had Your Sabbath Today?

Some days I feel really overwhelmed! It's not really a bad kind of overwhelmed, and I usually don't let it affect my good mood too extremely, but I often feel that there's a lot more to process than I'm willing to give attention to at the time!
 
I was reminded today that I need to rest! I'm not talking about sleep--that thought is just a funny joke right now with our newest blessing due to arrive any day and me finding it impossible to find a comfortable position to be in! I'm talking about that stillness we're supposed to experience with God. That "Sabbathing".

God, himself, gave us the example of the Sabbath or "rest" day in Genesis 2:3: "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." We know our God didn't need a day of rest, but he knew we would need one---in fact, we would need many!

There are some who practice a strict Sabbath day once a week (usually on Saturday or Sunday), where they do no work, no cooking, no entertainment---actually, I'm not really sure what they DO, but I know the Sabbath is, for them, a specific day with specific "rules" that is and are unchangeable.

While I don't think God intends for us to be that legalistic about the specific day or numbers of hours spent doing nothing, I can see how planning for and taking this day can be a peaceful and restful thing to look forward to!

The way I see it is that God wants us to have many "Sabbath days"...even "Sabbath hours"! One of the many similar definitions for "Sabbath" is "to rest". Feeling sick? Take a Sabbath. Want to contemplate God's many blessings on your life? Take a Sabbath. Feeling overwhelmed by absolutely nothing? (Why, yes I am!) Take a Sabbath!

I'm physically tired but I don't necessarily need a physical nap. Let's face it, I've got nine children---one of them squirming around inside me at all hours of the day and night---and all of them 12 years old and younger. I'm not going to get that nap! What I need is time to rest in God. I need to meditate on verses like Proverbs 18:10: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are safe." I need to memorize promises like 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

There's a quote that says, "Don't be so much a 'human doing' as a 'human being'." There's no reason to overload myself with neither thoughts nor activities. When I feel this overwhelmed feeling coming on (especially when I don't know why!!), the best thing I can do is cast all my cares upon Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)...and rest!

Putz House Banner and Pretty Christmas Pinks

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you're feeling peaceful and blessed as you prepare to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year!

A couple weeks ago, I bought an adorable pdf off of Etsy of these cute Putz House Christmas scenes.  This morning, I fixed up a cute banner for my pink Christmas shelf.   

You can find the pdf on Etsy at Pink Pearl Studio.  I plan on adding a little lace or something to the top of each banner piece but need to find just the right trim before I finish them off.

Most of our home is decked out in traditional Christmas colors but I wanted a little shelf of my own to make all pink and pretty!  Here are some of the other things I've got up there:

I love this pretty vintage angel tray.  I'd love to find some more like it but all the ones I've found so far have been black and gold.

I found this cute little winter girl at a yard sale last summer.  I'm also collecting these vintage tree toppers.  This blue one looks pretty with my tray.

Today at Pink Saturday, we're showing off our Christmas treats.  I've been making these yummy pink-wrapped carmels and selling them in my Etsy shop.  Yum!  What a great gift idea, wouldn't you agree? 

 Tonight we're headed out to get our Christmas tree!  Each year, the Boy Scouts sell them just a couple blocks down the road and we always get ours from there.  Daddy will put up the lights tonight and tomorrow night we'll get it all decorated.  Each year, we give the kids a new ornament and my husband and I buy them for each other.  Someday when they're married, I plan on giving each of the kids their ornaments on their first Christmas.  After we decorate the tree, we always have hot chocolate and candy canes and watch the lights on the tree.  That's a fun tradition my mom did with us and my kids enjoy it every year.



<a href="http://www.bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc418/lostinavalon1/Homemakinglinkup.png" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a> I hope you'll link up your favorite posts with today's Homemaking LinkUp Weekend.  Please also share the button on your blog so your friends can join in too.  Have a great week!

Linking With:
Beverly's Pink Saturday

Hope 2012

For this week's Homemaking Link-Up Weekend, I'm sharing this short story I wrote in honor of the baby we lost in November 2007.  Each year around November 29th, I repost it and am always so glad to hear that it still ministers to others. I hope it blesses you today.  Please link up your favorite posts below!

Hope sits still and serene at the edge of a melodious river, dangling one bare foot into the warm, blue water. Her lovely blonde ringlets reflect the light of the afternoon sun and form a shimmering halo around her young head. Though she can’t help but raise her eyes every so often to the far-off hills, He has told her to wait patiently and so she will. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” He’d promised. If she has learned anything from past experience, she’s learned that time is relative no matter where one is. Even in this youthful body, she knows that the time it takes to endure is well worth the rewards that fortitude brings.

Since patience seems to be coming much more easily than normal this day, she begins to take inventory of her new appearance. Strangely, she can not see her reflection in the water in front of her. From the moment she arrived here in this glorious place, she’s wondered about herself. There isn’t much she can learn about what’s inside; about her dreams, wishes and longings. She’s treasured all of these, along with many thoughts and questions, since the day she was conceived. It’s her outside that is so new and clean and unfamiliar.

With a little shake of her head, she can see that her hair is golden and beautiful. She reaches for a curl and lets the silky strand slide around her fingers and over the back of her hand. As she moves to examine the hand more closely, she spies a simple white butterfly hovering near her knee. She watches with innocent interest for just a moment before it flutters over to a nearby snapdragon and gracefully lands beside it in the grass.

Lifting the small, delicate hand up to eye-level seems so simple now and she marvels at the lightness of it; both in skin tone and in weight. Turning this hand right-side up, she examines the lines upon her tiny palm. Amazing, she thinks, and so real.

Her eyes follow the motion as she slowly places the hand back in her lap. Fixing her gaze on the arm for just a moment, she changes her mind about resting it and, using her newly-nimbled fingers, explores the length of the opposite arm. Leisurely, she runs her fingers up and back down. Tickles, she says to herself, as even now the new word tickles her tongue.

A slippery smoothness is caressing the bottom of her one wet foot. Her brown eyes settle on a long and shiny creature gliding through the water. Father loves fish, she thinks to herself. But just as quick as it caught her attention, the creature is gone and her mind becomes occupied elsewhere.

“She’s here,” the butterfly whispers up to the snapdragon. The flower shivers with a sudden air of excitement and replies, “So soon? I didn’t realize we’d get to see her so perfectly formed so early!” The butterfly sighs. “Yes, she’s a beauty, isn’t she? She’s just the image of perfection!” She flurries up to give the snapdragon a butterfly kiss and then takes off back into the sky in search of a honeysuckle treat.

The snapdragon proudly pulls herself up to her full height--six inches at last measurement. As she stretches her lush leaves against the warm sun’s rays, a tiny yawn escapes from her delicate, pink lips. Lifting her head to peer over the sleeping marigolds, she stands upon the tips of her toes (which are firmly rooted in the ground, of course) and sees, just over the nearest hillside, exactly what she is looking for.

“Come children, come quickly”, the Man says as he ascends the last mound of lush, emerald hilltop. He takes care not to hurry the young family, most of them less than five years old. The Man turns to face this great group of children, His very presence commanding their complete attention. He smiles warmly and lovingly, sits down on a nearby rock and takes a young Asian boy on his lap. “Children”, he says, “I want you to remember back to the first time you realized you were in Hope’s place. Be patient, be kind. Be gentle and show her love. Come. Let’s go down to the river.”

The friendly party makes their way across the honey-scented meadow. “Look”, cries the Man, “there by the water!” He stops the children and they all stand still, amazed at the way the sunlight bounces off her flaxen hair. “She looks like my Angel”, says a little Irish red-headed girl, “only my Angel is a lot bigger than that!”

“Come”, says the Man, “Let’s take some time to offer our welcome wishes to this newest reflection of me. There’s a new child in Heaven today.”

More:
When Life Breaks