PWOC International Blog

 “He leads me beside the quiet waters, he restores my soul” Psalm 23:2b-3a

 “Hello, you’ve reached the Whites. We’re on a sabbatical this month—which means we’re having focused family time and rearranging our house. We hope that whatever you’re doing, you’re having an enjoyable summer as well. Take care.…”

If you happened to have called our home during the month of July, this is the answering machine message you would have heard. If this message sounds strange to you, it probably did to some of our friends and family as well. Thankfully, they were patient with us, and later got to enjoy the fruits of our labor during our end-of-sabbatical house warming tea.  We hand delivered invitations that our children designed, promising “cake, appetizers, fellowship, and a tour of our ‘re-invented’ home.” The party was a great success! God gave us a cozy summer day, where the blazing sun took its own sabbatical, allowing the clouds to bless us with an overcast sky and a slight breeze.

If you’d like to enjoy an end of sabbatical party of your own I should first define our meaning of sabbatical. For our family, a sabbatical refers to a specific time set aside to say “no” to outside activities and social events for the purpose of working toward a specific goal as a family unit. For instance, our family chose to purge, rearrange, and refresh our home from the top floor all the way down to the basement storage room. We took creative action to make it happen. We redistributed chores so Mom could spend her time working on home improvements. We also spent this month enjoying simple, unstressed moments together. A flexible, unstructured schedule made this possible. We worked late hours many nights after the little boys were in bed, rearranging the older one’s bedrooms, etc. We took Sundays completely off from work projects (and even a formal church service), to spend time in family worship, reading library books and watching favorite Christian speakers on DVD. This decision helped my husband, who was unable to take work off for the month, to be a part of our rest from normal activity. We limited family outings to just one library or pool visit a week and took one overnight family vacation to go crabbing in Chesapeake Bay. All thoroughly enjoyed our much needed hotel stay (where there were no home improvements, just rest!). My husband and I enjoyed a date every Saturday where we shopped for new furniture to replace our tired, inadequate pieces and purchased new rugs, curtains and accessories as needed. We split a meal at a nice restaurant and felt revived as we looked forward to next Saturday’s adventure. We found that we were able to accomplish so much by learning to say “no” with grace to requests to attend this outing or that church event or for the older children to baby-sit or pet sit. Maybe everyone did not understand our desperate need for some serenity in our lives and order in our home, but as a home schooling mom of six, living in an active military community, the opportunities to be busy can be endless. Instead of escaping to the countryside for the summer (thus clearing out our savings account and having to leave Dad behind at work), we struck up the compromise to take a break from the outside world, and create the haven we craved right in our own home. This took financial investment, time, energy, and trust in God that as we let go of normal routines and made sacrifices, He would fill the empty places.

Our oldest 3 children (ages 17, 14, and 11) took over cooking and planning all the meals, and doing extra childcare for younger siblings. This challenge gave them a confidence they did not know they possessed, and they learned new skills from which we are still reaping the benefits. A few examples?  Our eleven-year-old daughter has become a consummate cake baker and decorator, our son has mastered the vital skill of pancake frying, and our oldest daughter played the role of head cook so well, Mom wonders if she may be out of a job. Even the younger ones felt a sense of accomplishment as they learned to load a dishwasher or clear the table. I learned that my children are capable of more than I realized. My belief that children thrive when kept busy, productive, and creative in the home was definitely reinforced during this time. And now, we each feel a sense of satisfaction and pride in our lovely, clutter free home. We just bask in our freshly repainted living room (on sofas that don’t sink) and bless God for home and each other.

Maybe you don’t need a new home. But perhaps you yearn, as did we, for a quieter life, and more joy and connectedness as a family. Maybe you have a family project you’ve dreamed of completing—like building a tree house, making an up-to-date scrap book, or restoring a piece of furniture. Choosing a goal that challenges you as a family and seems bigger than your own abilities is the perfect recipe for a sabbatical.  If the Lord calls your family to invent your own style of sabbatical, I believe you’ll be amazed at the cup of blessing He pours down upon your lives. But remember, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1-2

Submitted by Elnora White