In my quest for a more relaxing weekend, one that truly includes REST and REFLECTION on God’s provision, I began searching websites for observing a real Sabbath rest as a Christian. You see, I’ve never found Sundays to be particularly restful, and conversely, I’ve always found the practice of ending the week at sundown to be truly refreshing.
In my online searching, I happened upon this article and this book, and was inspired!
Basically, the idea is to prepare on Friday, feast as a family on Friday night, enjoy a Saturday of refreshing family time with low-key meals and lots of relaxing, and then celebrate Sunday as the Lord’s Day by fellowshipping with other believers, but not considering that your “sabbath.” This made total sense to me!
I was trying so hard to make Sunday a day of rest that I sometimes (ashamedly) ended up irritated by the whole process of getting ready for church and managing the chaos of taking little ones to a worship service. It was NOT relaxing. But, allowing myself the freedom to consider Sunday a day to worship and minister to others while pushing reset on my week, took a huge burden off my shoulders.
So, all that said, our Friday evening celebration meal has come to consist of challah bread, soup, and fruit. I start the soup on low in a crock pot as we do our Friday Home Blessing chores, and as soon as the chores are complete, I start the bread. The fruit is an easy dessert, and I always try to have some sort of special juice for the kids as well.
By the way, I have shared my challah bread recipe here on Raising Arrows before, but the reason I am posting again is because I wanted to revisit it now that we are in the midst of establishing a new tradition, and a new way of seeing our weekend. May you find your own rest and refreshment this weekend!
Challah Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water or milk
- 2 packages yeast
- 6-7 cups flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup oil
- 1 egg
Instructions
- In a large bowl or mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water or milk. Add sugar and salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix well. Add oil and egg and mix well. Add remaining flour and mix well. {dough will be a bit sticky}
- Place in a large greased bowl {not plastic} and put a warm, wet cloth over it {I use a tea towel, run through warm water and wrung out}. Place in oven. {you might need to warm the oven a bit before putting it in there…but don't leave the oven on while it rises!}. Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the bowl – approx. 30-60 mins.
- Divide dough into 3 equal pieces. Divide two of those pieces into thirds and roll all 6 pieces into 16" long ropes. Use 3 pieces each to make a braid, pinching at each end to seal. Divide remaining dough into 6 pieces and roll each into 17" long ropes. Again, use 3 pieces each to make 2 braids and place each braid on top of the thicker braid, tucking the ends of the top rope under the bottom rope.
- Cover and let rise {I just keep them on my stove top, but you could put them back in the oven} for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Bake bread for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops and sides with butter. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight bag or container…that is, if there is anything left to store!
Indasa Butler says
I love that you have found true rest with your family. Isn’t it great?! I understand. I was searching for a real “sabbath” too. Add to that homeschooling and it was a never-ending story. We now attend Friday night worship services and enjoy restful time with family and friends at the beach or in the Valley during the weekends. I love baking bread so, I will be trying your Challah bread recipe this coming week. The photo looks beautiful and the recipe looks very simple.
Christine says
I love this!! Thanks for the inspiration. Blessings to you and your family.
Amber says
Thank you, Amy. As always, you inspire me and help simplify my day so I can enjoy the real things in life. I will be making this today.
Kelly Fox says
As the wife of a full-time minister and mother of many littles, I struggled for years with frustration over keeping the sabbath. It wasn’t until I was shown through scripture that keeping the sabbath was a sign meant for the Jewish people (instituted in the Mosaic covenant) of the redemption that was to come, and that it was not a sign meant to continue after Christ had finished his redemptive work. I’m not going to attempt to in-depth or quote any scriptures here in the comments because the sermon by John MacArthur that I’ve attached gives a good overview of the subject and is chocked full of the scripture to explain it.
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-379/understanding-the-sabbath
Oh, and thank you for the Challah Bread recipe!! It looks wonderful!
Kelly Fox says
oops. After proof-reading my comment AFTER it was posted, I realized my grammar wasn’t the best! Forgive me!
Can I use the excuse that the baby kept me up last night…?
Jennifer Dewing says
My father-in-law has a great way of putting this ” while there is no commandment for a Christian Sabbath, we all need a day of rest. That day may be on a Sunday or a Wednesday, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re resting. That doesn’t have to mean doing nothing but laying on the couch all day. It simply means that your “day of rest” is different from the rest of your week.”.
It’s sounds like you’ve found that out, too!
Sheila says
We are using this book in our homeschool this year, as part of our history studies! We just celebrated our first Sabbath last week, and are looking forward now to the upcoming feast days in September.
Jeanine says
Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. Our family started keeping the biblical Sabbath about a year ago. It has been such a blessing in our family, in our marriage and in my walk as a Christ follower. God is so smart! He knew what we needed! ?