Sabbath and Children

We are all commanded to observe/remember/keep/guard the Sabbath. And today a majority do so on at least one day of the week. I happened upon an article in volume 12 of the Parents' Review and enjoyed it immensely. I'd like to share and maybe expound on a point of interest.

What should a child do on their Sabbath day? This author suggests plenty of joy, rest, and worship. Here is how he says these may be accomplished.






- To secure these, I would earnestly urge that our children are entitled to as much of their parents' company as it is possible to give, and a heavy responsibility rests on those who hand them over to others, and devote their hours to what they believe to be duties in another direction, for in this they deprive their children on a holy day of that water for which they thirst and which none other hand can give them. Your talk need not be always of God and the Bible, for all creation is His handwork and shows forth His glory. The difficulty is to look abroad on this world and see a thing which has not some religion in it, or a good thought that is not bathed in God's sunshine. I should not recommend more than one church attendance for children, and am satisfied that if parents would converse with them freely about what is said in churches, it would be more useful and more fruitful of happiness than taking them to hear a second sermon. Having directed the child's feet in the way that leads to public worship, the understanding mind will come with later years. -






Did anything in that paragraph catch your eye? I sure was impressed by his thoughts of not just handing your child over to others for Sabbath teaching and that only one service that day is adequate for a child.






I recently read that sunday schools were started as a way to reach out to the children who didn't not having Believing parents to teach them the love of Yeshua. However, even Believing parents decided to just drop the kids off (as with public school) and figured they'd done their job.






I have always said it is my responsibility to teach my son about Yeshua the Messiah and why we should devote ourselves to HIM.






In her book All the Way Home , published in 1989, Mary Pride said that churches seem to be taking the focus off family and putting it onto the Body of Believers. She says parents need to spend more time with their children then church activities in a given week. Yet, churches today have 2 or more services on the first day of the week along with Bible study and a majority also have a mid-week family night and let's not forget about women's/men's ministries. One person contributed saying that if a mom was going to be involved in something that would take her attention off her children then it should be card games or golf or anything other than church ministry because then the child would grow to despise something nonimportant but woe to the mom who turns her own children away from God because she made them feel like church was more important than her own family.




I'm all for a mom deepening her relationship with Yeshua but why can't she do that at home and include the children. A daily family Bible study and prayer and singing session should be a part of every mom's daily routine. A mom should also let her children know/see that she does take time, even in a busy day, to spend alone with Yeshua. We the parents are their closest and daily example, not a pastor or other church department head.







Ok but it's a long day if their is only one Worship service attended so what else can I do with my child(ren)?





- You cannot keep children idle on Sabbath, and at the same time happy, and in order to guide their activity it is necessary to look a little closer at their recreations and employments. It is not right that the noise of children should disturb the quiet of that day to grown-up people, but beyond that limit I should not care to be the first to throw a stone at a child's forms of amusement and recreation. Of course recreation must not absorb that part of the day which should be given to worship. But let them ramble and run, tend their flowers and their pets, play their quiet games, read their books, examine and arrange their curiosities and their specimens, their pictures and their toys. But, better than games and collections for satisfying their energy is the long interesting walk, where flowers and leaves, stones, birds and a hundred other things, delight their eyes, while the parent talks with them by the way, and they talk with him, feeling sure that whatever is not of evil is of good. Music and singing, painting, and reading any good book, are all restful and joyous employments for a part of the day, reminding them that as Sabbath stands higher than the rest of the week, so should all these pursuits be at their highest level on that day. At the same time let it be known that all days are alike good, and to be spent in the service of God, whether at school or at church, but that on the Lord's day we are especially to turn our thoughts to God and remind ourselves of Yeshua. -

Last Shabbat (12.15.07) We had snow and DS went sledding as shown below. Today we are also getting a fresh snow. So DS is out there sledding again. He gets braver each trip...on his back and backwards downhill.




Here's to many joyful, restful, and worshipful Sabbaths spent with your children.