Stress Relief - a Day of Rest

When Moses requested a six day work week, Pharaoh conceded. Then, Pharaoh required the Israelites to find their own straw for making bricks and to make the same amount of bricks in a day's less time. Moses and Aaron led their people out of Egypt in a work stoppage! And when God handed down commandments - one of the commandments, the fourth, set forth a day of rest.

So, God Himself thought that we needed a break!

Stress is one of America’s greatest health concerns. Many physical problems are due to stress. In fact, the American Psychological Association claims that 69 – 90% of all doctor visits are stress related. Headaches, hypertension, stomach troubles, backaches, fatigue, insomnia and depression are all related to anxiety.

As a nation, we’ve whipped ourselves into a state of constant stress. Somehow, we’ve endowed being busy all the time with high moral overtones. Good people are busy people. Remember the old adage – idle hands are the devil’s playground? Yet, those hard working old timers, thanks to their old time religion, set aside a day of rest. The Sabbath, whether Saturday or Sunday was spent with family and religion dictated that you could not work. It was a sin to work on the Sabbath!

Secular America has destroyed that concept. Stores and businesses are open on Sunday. If we’re not working, we’re shopping or cleaning, doing laundry and catching up on all the chores we were too busy to perform during the hectic week.

If you research stress reduction, you often find the experts advise techniques that seem like more work – make schedules, timetables, organize, and make lists. They suggest that you sign up for classes in time management, yoga or meditation, all which not only cost money (stress) but have to be squeezed into your already busy schedule.

And it’s not only adults. Children rush home from school and rush through homework so they can dash off to their organized activities. Family meals often compromise frozen foods shoved into the microwave whenever individual members have the chance.

Maybe it’s time to step back and just forget about stress. Take time for family meals, long drawn out home cooked meals with fresh foods and laughter. Give children and ourselves free time to spend outdoors or relax in one another’s’ company. Leave big gaping holes in the schedule for wasting time, daydreaming or reading a novel.

The obsession with structured time destroys our creativity, our imagination and our physical and mental well being. Even God, after creating the World – quite an impressive and important job – took the day off.