Preparation for the Sabbath

A sigh of relief, the Sabbath is here. The last preparation day is through... I've been honing my Sabbath preparation routine for some time now, the goal being to get everything done during the week so that the Sabbath can truly be a restful experience. Sure we don't mow the lawn or paint the house on the Sabbath but the actual event of getting the entire family fed, dressed, packed and out the door by 9AM for morning services can definitely be exhausting. The turning point in my mind happened after hearing a minister say that every day leads to the Sabbath, every Sabbath leads to the Holy Days, Every Holy Day leads to the Feast of Tabernacles, every Feast of Tabernacles leads to the Kingdom of God. Around that same time I heard something that impressed on me the importance of preparations. If we don't do our preparations in the days leading to the Sabbath, then we are in effect breaking the Sabbath before it even arrives. To me that is sobering. Its so hard to put the Sabbath ahead of everything all week long - when I want to put off doing some errands or laundry or work outside, I have to remember that I'll be pushing it to get everything done by Friday evening and then we go into the Sabbath frazzled, tired and sometimes cranky... which still happens in our house, but we have a goal and are working steadily onward. Today, thankfully, went very smoothly thanks to some focus during the week and so today went as planned and the kids were in bed on time - hooray! What a wonderful feeling - to have nothing left to do! I even filled the coffee pot, pre-made breakfast so we can have a truly relaxing morning. Granted, a lot can still happen between now and 9AM tomorrow, after all we do have a 3 year old boy who's mission in life is to find or create messy situations to revel in. But I always find that God rewards us for those small efforts to please Him. He always smoothes the way so we can experience the satisfaction that comes with obeying His commandments.