A Beachy Sabbath

A couple of years ago, when my kids were enrolled in soccer, a make-up game was placed on a Sunday afternoon.  When one of the mothers of the team heard that we would not be able to make it she asked, "Oh, does the game go right through your church services?"
"No," I truthfully replied, and then my brain and my words got stuck.  Surely I couldn't just leave that 'no' dangling out there with no explanation... but I could not think of a tactful way to explain our family's fierce devotion to keeping the Sabbath day holy.

Living in the south, I am surrounded by good, honest, wonderful people who love Christ, love the Bible, and respect the ten commandments given by God to Moses.  Sometimes I forget that we all belong to different religions.  We all seem to be spinning around to the same music, enjoying each others company when all the sudden two bodies collide and we remember, we are different.  Different in the way we worship; different in the way we interpret the Bible; different in the areas of life to which we give our focus and attention; and, sometimes, different in the way we live those ten commandments. 

I could not explain to my friend on the soccer field that day that the people in my religion believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy because, most likely, the people in her religion believe the same thing.  We just interpret those words a little differently from one another which creates a fertile breeding ground for sounding judgmental and/or for taking offense, of which I wanted neither.  Hence the sticky brain.

But as I said before, I could not leave that 'no' dangling out there, either.  So, as gently and tactfully as I could I said, "... we just like to keep our Sundays quiet."
"Ohhh," she said nostalgically.  And, dropping her shoulders as if she were missing a dear friend continued, "we used to do that."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah.  I loved those quiet days.  But it seems that life has just swallowed those up into its hecticness and now Sunday is just like every other day of the week.  Just one more day to get the shopping done and the house cleaned."  Her eyes turned and gazed out over the soccer field and she said, mostly to herself, "I should try doing that again."
"We love it," I said.

And we do.  It is hard to say no sometimes, though.  Sunday birthday parties are the worst.  The kids feel disappointed, the parents sometimes feel disappointed and that makes me feel disappointed, too. But as I've sat reflecting in this occasional disappointment, I see that so many blessings, so many, have come from staying true to the way I interpret this single commandment.  One full day a week is spent in reverence.  Quietness.  Family togetherness.  We talk of Christ.  We build our unity.  We sing and play together.  We worship and recharge.  And we rest from the cares of the world... for just a day.  I love it! And the happy feelings that come from it are worth that occasional disappointment for me. 

And, when we're spending a week at the beach and Sunday rolls around, we try to treat that Sunday with as much reverence as other Sundays.  Though, it certainly doesn't look the same!  Walking on the beach... letting the waves lap up over your feet... writing your name in the sand... all these things can be done with reverence and quietness.  Boogie boarding and Frisbee five-hundred?  Maybe not so much.  So, we try to guide our kids' activities in the reverence direction by simply saying, 'no swimsuits today.'

But kids don't mind getting their clothes wet.  Even their church clothes.

So we add a little extra by saying, 'try not to let your clothes get wet.'  But we know, and they know, that it's a very soft rule and that they can bend it pretty far before it breaks. 

I'm sure they go to bed talking amongst themselves saying, 'hey, remember when our Moms and Dads told us not to get too wet?  That was funny.'

This particular Sunday happened to be Mothers' Day, too.  And what better way to spend Mothers' Day than on the beach with your dearest friends, husband and kids?!  Watching our husbands busy themselves around the kitchen making a delicious meal for us added to the magic of the day. 

Especially because we got to sit and chat while they did so.

 The kids were delighted to see they were having octopus for dinner:

 And we adults had salmon, asparagus, rice pilaf, a gourmet green salad, and fruit and sherbert for dessert.  So delicious it was all eaten very quickly.

There is something magical about spending quiet Sundays on the beach.
I'll have to do a lot of it in Miami next year.
If only I could take my friends along...