This month, in conjunction with my 31 Day series on Letting Go in the Deep End, I’m asking Sabbath Society bloggers to tell us what they have had to let go in order to observe Sabbath as a routine. This week, as I’ve written about Letting Go of  Productivity as Self-Worth and Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle, Emily Buller’s words resonate. For more about Emily, check out her blog at Whispers of Wonders.

I have had to let go of my expectations of what rest is. I used to think that it was always peace and quiet, the calmness of a quiet morning.  I have 4 young children at  home, so peace, quiet and calm are not often part of the equation. As we explore Sabbath and rest together as a family, in this season, I am forced to embrace the play that is part of rest.  Some of my sweetest times of rest have come in holy snippets in a nature walk at the park or along the lake shore as the kids throw rocks or discover moss and frogs.  It is rarely what I expected it to be, but rewarding as long as I do not hold too tightly to the idea that it should look like someone else’s.