Sabbath

My husband and I have made a big decision concerning our business. As I have often mentioned, we own a take-away cum diner. The economy hasn’t been great and I have been praying about a business strategy for a while and really hadn’t received an answer. One Saturday morning I received the following scripture:
Jeremiah 17:24-25, But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit of the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever.
This was the beginning of our journey towards learning about why we need to keep the Sabbath. I’m not going to get into arguments about where the Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday. For us, it is Sunday, as we get together with other believers for worship.
There are many teachings about keeping the Sabbath and one of the main points that stand out to me is that God made the Sabbath for man.
Mark 2:27, And He said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Every person needs to rest for one day a week. That is not just in the bible, it is a law of nature. If we work for seven days a week we aren’t getting decent rest and we are going to reap the consequences. We will get sick and we could even die. In the Bible the consequence of working on the Sabbath was death; the same applies today.
Genesis 2:3, So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Exodus 20:8-11, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Deuteronomy 5:15, You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty had and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
In the desert God gave the people manna to eat. Every morning they gathered it. It was fresh and they could make bread from it. If they kept any over until the next day it went bad and was filled with worms. On the sixth day, however, they had to gather twice as much and it stayed fresh for the Sabbath.
This says to me that if we see God as our source we do not have to be chasing after money. Closing our shop on Sundays doesn’t make financial sense. We do actually make a profit on Sundays. We aren’t closing it because it doesn’t pay us to keep it open. We are closing it because God said so and because we want to honour Him. When we bought the business close to 6 years ago we took out the Lotto Machine. In fact we never sold one Lotto ticket. We do not believe in gambling or in encouraging people to gamble. There were people who told us that we would be losing customers, but this was not the case. I think that we have to realize that if we honour God’s statutes, He is going to honour us.
Is making money that important? Is it worth compromising your health and your family life for work? When you’re dead you can’t take the money with you. We need to be living according to Kingdom principles and not worldly principles. Our lives will change for the better and we will be able to enjoy the beauty of creation.

Balance

I have discovered that I need a little more balance in my life. Not a big surprise really. my husband and I own a takeaway shop which operates from 6am to 9pm, seven days a week. We have 12 employees because except for the actual takeaways, we also manufacture our own pies which we sell in the shop and wholesale. When we did an upgrade to our point of sales, we also got a new back office computer.  the admin program is on that computer and for a few months I was doing the admin at home but still spending a lot of time at the shop. I got to the point where I was getting palpitations just thinking about doing the admin. I also realized that because there was work for me to do at home, I felt guilty relaxing or doing anything I enjoyed. So, this morning, in the rain, I moved the computer back to the shop. The desk in my office looks like the cockpit of a Boeing with all the screens, but I don’t really care about the aesthetics. My peace of mind is much more important. Now I can do what I enjoy doing while I’m at home. My house can be my sanctuary and happy place once again.

Psalm 16 speaks of peace:

The Hope of the Faithful, and the Messiah’s Victory

A Michtam of David.

1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord,
“You are my Lord,
My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
3 As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
Nor take up their names on my lips.

5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Yes, I have a good inheritance.

7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;
My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Beginnings

 

My first bean harvest

I plant marigolds among the vegetables to keep the bugs away – unfortunately they don’t keep weeds away!

 

 

 

In the process of beginning this new blog today I have contended with slow internet speed and passwords and even a name for my blog. Space for a garden wasn’t my first choice, but in retrospect it  probably is the best name as it encompasses so many of the things I would like to share. (Now after I’ve finished writing I’m a bit confused because I’m not even sure that is the name!!!)

Two and a half years ago my husband took early retirement from the job he had been doing for 28 years and bought a takeaway shop in our hometown.  I must confess that for a long time I didn’t think it was a good idea, but I decided to go with it and do my best to make a success of it.  At that stage I was running a nursery school for underprivileged kids which was a joy to me.

I very soon discovered that running this shop isn’t a job, its a way of life.  Putting in 16 hours a day is often the norm. I started to get extremely tired after 3 months and when I eventually went to a homeopath she told me to go gluten free and sugar free because of infection in my stomach and intestines.  I had been on a gluten free diet some years previously so I knew what to do. Within a week I was a different person. So here I am, on a gluten free diet, spending most of my waking hours in a shop that makes the most amazing pies, samosas, burgers and toasted sandwiches, to name but a few!  My working hours stayed the same because I was doing all the admin for the shop (I had no idea a little shop could generate so much paper work!!) and still running the school.  Then 8 months ago I got a mild case of shingles and the doctor said it was due to burnout.  This made me sit up and take notice. I knew I would have to make a change in my lifestyle.

I decided to give up the school. It sounds easy when you say it fast but it was a heart wrenching decision. Once I had made it I really had peace with it and for the last 6 months the running of the shop has become the major part of my life. But … I’m not an extrovert and being around grown-up people in a business situation all day isn’t my idea of the ideal life.

Then I looked out of the window and discovered that behind the shop there is more than enough space for a garden.  I nagged my husband enthusiastically (that is possible) to let me start a vegetable garden. I even employ a teenage girl part time to help with the heavy work.  She loves being outdoors and doing “hard work” – those are her words.

Last week I harvested  a handful of green beans! What joy. This is how I cooked them so that there would be enough for my husband and myself:

Chop the beans into pieces of about 1.5cm

Dice one potato – cook the potatoes and beans in the microwave untill the beans are tender.

Fry 3 rashers of bacon together with 2 chopped onions.

Add the beans to the onion mixture and season with lots of black pepper, salt and parsley.  Toss to heat through.

My neighbour, who just came to buy takeaways told me to add a cup of sour cream and grate cheddar cheese over the top and them bake it in the oven.  I’ll try that next time.

I also have swiss chard, onions (and spring onions) garlic and a few miserable tomato plants in my garden. Its really too cold for tomatoes so I’ll have to see how they do. I’ll sow more seed in the spring.  My peas have just put their first leaves through the soil. I love eating peas straight from the pods. Oh yes, my garlic is also growing. I get a bit carried away when I talk about my garden, and in a way that’s my aim. Its my happy place at the moment.  When I’ve had enough of admin and staff and customers I can run away and play in the garden.

I think that everyone should have enough space for a garden.  It doesn’t literally have to be a garden.  It can be any hobby or pastime that makes you happy. Something that allows you to switch off from the stress that living brings.  I also do other things that make me happy but I consider myself very privileged to have space for a garden.