Taking A Break

I really enjoy the blog and I really enjoy the process of writing. I have a notebook of blog post notes that I write in when something comes to mind. Sometimes, the ideas just flow and I will write, or partially write several posts at a time.

I have alot of things that I want to share with you all, such as -- some great pics from Hurricane Irene and a lesson in them too, school is starting this week and I wanted to share with you all that I found my Sabbath!! But I have to be honest with you ... I just do not have the desire to sit at the computer. Life is flowing along very happily for us in the real world but I am feeling like I am neglecting the blog, like I need to be here writing, because there are things on my heart to share, but lately, I just can't bring myself to sit here and write them.

So, I have decided to take a break for a while. I have no idea how long it will last. I was gong to leave you with a picture but I think instead I will share a short video of part of my Sabbath -- it is Zoe and Colin playing in the Atlantic Ocean. When I stand on the shore of the ocean, I am always in awe of how Big God is and how powerful. And He chose me and loves me. On purpose! There just aren't feelings to describe that ...

May the Lord bless you all as you seek to know Him better ~ Shannon

The Week In Review - A Photo Blog (8-20)

What a great week!!

We had the State Track Meet on Saturday. Colin did great in all of his events and the relay team cut 14 seconds off their qualifying time!!! I am sure that it was because 2 of the 4 boys cut their hair off! (The other two already had short hair.) I didn't manage to get a lot of pics this year - which is odd for me - but here is a good one of Colin crossing the finish line.

 And here is the update from Colin's garden. This was the second tomato that we have gotten so he let me have it! It was SO good!! These are supposed to be big tomatoes but for some reason they are turning while they are still small. I'm not sure if it because it has been a dry summer, even though we have watered it. Anyway, the plant is LOADED with tomatoes so we are thrilled!!

On Thursday I took Colin and Zoe to the ocean! We LOVE the ocean!! This was the first time that we have been able to go all summer so we were super excited! This trip has Sabbath written all over it! I will write about that in a day or so. For now, here are a couple of pics :)

And Friday morning , bright and early, I went to hang out with the local Christian radio station's morning show DJ's while I waited in line for tickets to see Third Day and Tenth Avenue North in concert!! WOOHOO!!! (That was for the concert, not the DJ's -- LOL) They were broadcasting live and I even got to be on the radio!

So, how was your week? 

I pray you were all blessed by the Greatness of our Lord! 

I know I was :)

Learning to Sabbath - Building My Liturgy

I recently found this book on my desk that I had started and then put down because I had lost interest in it. It's called Seismic Shifts - Small Changes That Make A Big Difference by Kevin Harney. I think this book would be great for a new believer or for someone who feels like they want to strengthen their faith but alot of the suggestions that he makes, I am already doing or have done.

Well, I picked it back up the other day and the chapter that my bookmark was at was about Sabbathing! LOL I kind of felt that alot of what he was saying was already being explored in the Mark Buchanan book that I'm reading but he did make a very good point about HOW we can tell if the schedule for the day looks like Sabbath or not. Here are the things that he suggests would define a 'Sabbath Day' (now please remember that these are just this particular author's suggestions! These are not quotes from the Bible but I felt that they were worth sharing.)

• Our purpose for Sabbath is to draw into a more intimate relationship with God. If your day does not include this, then it is not Sabbath.
• Sabbath is for rest. This does not mean to get legalistic and lay around the house doing nothing all day. It means to do things which are restful for you. If you are a farmer by trade, then working in your garden may not be restful for you. If, on the other hand, you sit at a desk 40 hours a week, then being in your garden may be just what you need. There is no black-and-white answer for what rest is. It is an individual choice and can be changed within your own personal 'choreography'. 
• Sabbath allows us time to fellowship with our family and our family of believers.

So I got to thinking about my trial Sabbath day and how it would measure up to these criteria and here's what I came up with:
** I didn't feel like my time was focused on God. I didn't end my time feeling closer to God. It's times like these that I am thankful that I know that my feelings will lie to me and lead me astray. Just because I didn't feel closer to God doesn't mean that I'm not closer to becoming the person that He wants me to be!! I think the devil knows how to push my buttons (he has been studying me for 39 years, after all!!), and he wanted to knock me off my track of worshiping. Well, you know what?? That is just NOT going to happen!! I may not have been worshiping the way I wanted to or the way I had pictured it in my mind, but I was definitely in prayer. And my heart was definitely being molded by the experience.

So, in light of that I would call the day *successful* just not Sabbath-ful (if that is even a word!)

 So, using the above mentioned guidelines, I can think about the *choreography* of my liturgy. So far it has just been a time of, albeit disconnected and distracted, quiet and prayer. I think that these DO belong on a Sabbath liturgy, but maybe I'm missing something ...

 What are your thoughts?

Learning To Sabbath -- My *Trial* Day

Well, I had the day off from work today so I thought I would try to do a 'trial' Sabbath day - to try myself out and see if I could actually focus my energy on resting (I know that sounds weird, doesn't it??)

So, at the end of the day here is how I would rate myself. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being super-busy with no time to stop and breathe and with 10 being extremely restful, I would give myself a

4

Yup, I know. That's not alot. And perhaps I am being too hard on myself. I do tend to do that. But I don't think that I'm doing it here. As a rule, my life is chronically over-booked and if you read THIS you will see that I'm not good at stopping. I just don't know how very well.

That's what this series on Sabbathing is about - learning to slow down so that I will have time for proper Worship and so that I will be rested and restored from the business of my life. So, here is my honest estimation of how my day went.

Today was the State Track Meet so perhaps this wasn't a good choice for a day of resting. (Honestly I didn't intend to rest the whole day, anyway. I know myself. I will have to build up to that!) I was going to spend the morning and part of the afternoon doing things that make me feel rested but what ended up happening was grouchiness and some bitterness in my heart. I am working on some posts behind-the-scenes that are about handling being bitter and so I am not surprised that this came up. Of course the devil wants to throw that in my face and make me feel insecure about writing about it. Or perhaps it was God, using my quiet time to purge me of some things that I keep stuffing and avoiding dealing with. Either way, since I was determined to have a good day today, no matter what the source of it was, it had to be dealt with.

So, during the time I had allotted for restful activities - and those were not planned -- I had to spend it feeling upset and bitter about things and then giving them over to God. So, now that I have written this down and have taken a step back to look at it, I guess the time was not a waste. I am not feeling terribly rested right now, but hopefully I have let go of some things that could have built up into a real mess! I am so thankful that God allows me the room for a *do-over*! I will just try again another day!

What about you? When your life is super busy, what do you do to feel rested?

Learning To Sabbath - Liturgy

I recently started a new series on the blog  called Learning to Sabbath. It's really a study in slowing down our busy lives and learning how to connect with God on a more intimate level, on a more regular basis. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Part of how I am studying about the Sabbath (in addition, of course, to reading my Bible) is that I am reading a book by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God -- Restoring Your Soul by Restoring the Sabbath. In the prologue to the book, Buchanan talks about having a Liturgy for your Sabbath time. What the heck does that mean?? LOL He goes on to explain that it is sort of your how-to-guide. If your Sabbath were a research paper, then your liturgy would be your outline. Dictionary.com defines liturgy as

1. a form of public worship; ritual.

2. a collection of formularies for public worship.

So, it is your ritual, your pattern. Buchanan warns us not to get sidetracked by legalism here. Sabbath looses it's purpose when we are caught up in following the rules. He says rather that we should view our liturgy as a loosely choreographed dance. (Doesn't that sound nice?) You and I may follow the same steps in the dance but we might do them in a different order. Or the order of them may change from time to time. And of course, we would each add our own unique style to our own dances. 

At the end of each chapter in the book he gives a specific 'liturgy' or dance step, if you will, that you can do right away. I will share each of these with you as I go through the book but first I just wanted to introduce you to the idea of having a liturgy. 

It's a very unusual idea, isn't it, to 'choreograph' your 'day of rest'? 

Stay tuned for more as I continue to learn and share and thank you for joining me :)

Learning To Sabbath - The Beginning

The photos in today's post are brought to you by: my mother-in-law's flower garden :)

I have recently started to read a book by Mark Buchanan called The Rest of God - Restoring Your Soul By Restoring The Sabbath. I am LOVING  this book!! I am only up to chapter 3 but each chapter has had something really worth pondering and worth applying to my life. I want to be careful that I take my time and learn from this book so I started to keep a notebook of chapter notes of the things that I am learning and want to apply. This process of careful application really got me to thinking about what God has to say about the Sabbath and not just what Mark Buchanan has to say so I am also using my concordance to see what I can learn. I thought I would share my learning experience here and how I am applying it to life.

I was recently reading back through some older posts on the blog and this one was among them:  Mary, Martha & Facebook. It was very funny to me to be in this current situation of studying about the Sabbath and to re-read my own words saying: 'I would love to be like Mary but honestly, I just don't understand her. How can she just sit there? I have way too much to do for that!' How precious of God to teach me how to be like Mary and to give me the desire - the heart - to learn how to sit at His feet!!

Welcome to my new series called Learning To Sabbath. Join me as I read, study, apply and share what God has commanded us about the Sabbath. I for one, know that this is something that my life NEEDS. What about you? Could your life use some rest too?

I really like these last two pictures! This was a grasshopper that Colin caught. I have never seen one with a camouflaged body like that before! He was really hard to get a picture of because he kept kicking and moving and Colin's hand was wiggling too! I really like the picture of his face. How cool of God to make so many different creatures, each with a different look!