Preparing for Our Sabbath Supper

For about a year and a half now we have been setting aside Saturday as a day of rest, as our weekly Sabbath. We are new to this observance and are still defining what it really looks like for us – based on what we are reading in the Bible. The church that we attend is a Baptist church and observes Sunday as the day of rest, so we’re kinda on our own in our little community. Sometimes this is hard but our closest friends are supportive, even if they believe differently.

That being said, I wanted to tell you about our Friday night suppers. Each Friday night I try to make the meal a little more special. And the family has grown to love it and ask for specific items if I fail to be on the ball. During the holidays with so much going on we got away from eating a big special meal each Friday evening and so this week the kids and Jason were asking early. They wanted me to make braided bread and that takes planning on my part. This week I made this recipe and I made sure to double it so we’d have bread for a couple of days. I made two normal loaves and two braided loaves. I took a roast out of the freezer and Jason doctored it up and put it in the oven. We had to cook the roast early because there was apple crisp to cook and the bread too. Marrissa was my bread helper this week. We used “Bart” and he sure makes the mixing and kneading a lot easier! Everyone wants to help braid the dough. (In the past we’ve made 4 braided loaves so that partners can work together to braid a loaf each.)

Someone was in charge of getting the table cleared, washed well and set complete with a white table cloth, place mats, matching cups (if possible), and matching plates. This week we used paper plates so that clean up was minimal. We served mashed potatoes, peas, roast, and apple crisp. All the food is on my special white platters and bowls – no pots on the table on Friday night.

We have no special ceremony, aside from Jason saying a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing for the food we are about to eat. There is no biblical command to have a special supper to start the Sabbath, but we like to do this. After our meal, we do a basic clean up; we have to do dishes (even though this could be considered work) as we don’t have enough to last through the meals for the next day.

There are a few things (traditions) that I’d like to add to our Sabbath suppers but it takes time to learn and imprint into our minds and our actions and our habits. Some of the things I’m thinking about are: candle lighting, blessings for the children, reading a Scripture passage. These things will come, I believe.

Other things we do to prepare for the Sabbath include:

tidying up the whole house,
changing the sheets on the master bed (and the others if needed/time allows),
being caught up on dishes & laundry and
making sure there are left overs or easy foods available for eating the next day.

Have a great week,