Tips for Integrating a Sabbath Practice Into Life as a Senior

For older adults of faith, developing or leaning into a Sabbath practice might help with seeking such purposeful rest.

What Is a Sabbath Practice?

Traditionally, a Sabbath practice involves setting aside a day for worship and rest. Many Christians use the time for worship — such as in formal church services — fellowship with other believers, reflection and prayer on God’s Word, and resting from the week’s labors. Many Christians believe a Sabbath practice is the necessary and correct response to God’s command to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Historically, in the Western church, Sunday has been treated as the Sabbath day. Many individuals and families use Sunday as a time to attend worship services, have meals together and rest before the work week starts.

Early Christians followed Jewish tradition for Sabbath, which took place from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Some modern Christians have implemented this type of Sabbath practice in their own lives, in part because church obligations and activities, while important to many people of faith, create a lot of busyness. It can be difficult to properly Sabbath if you’re spending several hours serving in the church nursery and then cooking meals for a fellowship supper, for instance.

What Does a Sabbath Practice Look Like for You?

Depending on the tenets of your faith and your own understanding of God’s will in your life, Sabbath might mean different things:

• Setting Sunday aside to worship God, attend church and rest in his Word
• Setting Friday night through Saturday night aside for rest and prayer
• Avoiding certain tasks, particularly those deemed work, during a certain day (usually Saturday or Sunday)

However, one of the most important parts of developing a Sabbath practice is consistently setting aside a time to focus on God, worship him and find rest in the peace only Jesus provides. If your faith tenets don’t outline a specific Sabbath practice, you might pray about what one could look like in your life.

Tips for Developing a Sabbath Habit

If you don’t already have a Sabbath habit or you’d like to develop a practice aside from attending church on Sundays, here are some tips to integrate this practice into your life.

Create a Spiritual Growth Goal

Whenever you’re creating a new habit of any kind, it can be easy to fall into a “checklist” trap. The goal can become simply to check the item off your list so that you “succeeded” in doing it. Worrying only about ticking off the to-do list can lead to poor Sabbath habits, as you might simply go through the motions of prayer and rest without being fully engaged.

Instead, think about a specific spiritual goal you can align with your habit as you begin it. Avoid anything that could turn your Sabbath practice into an anxiety-inducing productivity requirement. Reading the entire Bible in a few months may be a worthy goal for many, but it’s not one that aligns fully with the concept of Sabbath. If you’d like to incorporate Scripture into your Sabbath, you might instead make a goal to work through and talk to God about a single book of the Bible to help you grow closer to God while developing a more intimate understanding of his story.

Start Small and Realistic

Outside faith-based tenets that call for an entire day of Sabbath, consider how you can start small and work up to bigger Sabbath habits. For instance, you might set aside 1 hour of rest every day or commit to not scheduling anything on Saturday mornings so you can spend them with God.

Invite Others to Join You

Accountability is a great way to increase your chances of success in developing any habit. Talk to like-minded friends or family you trust about your desire for an increased Sabbath habit. Simply telling someone about your goals can increase your motivation to see them through. You might also invite others into fellowship and worship with you, even if it’s a small gathering in an assisted living community common room where you read and discuss Scripture together.

Balance Worship and Rest

Find ways to balance worship and rest. One of the reasons many people of faith don’t feel like they have a Sabbath is that they put so much work and emphasis on worship and related activities that they don’t rest in the peace Jesus offers them. No matter how you Sabbath, consider setting some specific amount of time aside to simply be still and know that he is God.