Preparing for Shabbat
How do you prepare for Shabbat? How does one prepare to rest?
The physical components of what allow one to rest often vary person to person. A student might be sure they have assignments and deadlines well enough organized and managed so that they can take 24 hours off. A housewife might make plans for meals during her rest, the laundry at w good stopping point, and/or the house tidy. A white collar worker may make sure all devices are powered down and put away prior to the beginning of Shabbat. While a blue collar worker may have the luxury of a ore delineated job, there are still plenty of chores and relationship obligations that need attention outside of work hours.
Where you are at in your season of life, affects what this likes like for you. G-d commands rest from all regular work. What is the regular work you do during the week? How can you set up your time management to help your day of rest be more actually restful. What errands can be done a different day, projects finished or organized differently, every day tasks that can be completed prior to resting? What things can be put on pause, that your heart may be in a worshipful posture?
Resting can be very hard for all of us. There is always something else to do, someone else to talk to, somewhere else to go, something needs our attention. Learning to prioritize rest, requires us to organize our entire week around this one day of resting in order to focus on the L-rd.
This learning takes time and wisdom. But G-d is a gentle teacher. He will point our attentions to those areas we need to focus on during the weekdays. Because His desire is for us to focus on Him. He knows we get caught to much up in ourselves if we do not. G-d isn’t just a G-d of the cerebral or the cosmos. He is the G-d of our day to day and He very much cares even about the preparations that go into worship.
So how will you prepare your time this week- so that when Shabbat night comes and the candles are lit, you have the freedom to stop and pause and focus on Avinu Malkeinu- Our Father, Our King.
