Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son,
nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your
cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested
the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Exodus 20:8-11
The doorway to the problems we had
in our marriage was our failure to fulfill this Commandment, when Renato and I
did not make time for each other. I wanted to go out and he wanted to stay home
and sleep. When we stayed home, I was upset and when we went out, he was upset.
Our seventh day was not the Lord’s but ours.
Many think that this Commandment
talks about the Sabbath itself, but I have a different understanding. The
Sabbath is the seventh day, in other words, it is the last day of the week
where you have to stop working and dedicate this day to God. This doesn’t mean
that you have to stay all day on your knees praying, so much so that the Lord
Jesus worked the most on this day.
We sanctify our Saturday when we
stop thinking about ourselves and think of our neighbor.
Have you noticed that we take time
for many things and not for people? We take time to work, to take care of our
home, to get beautiful, to rest, etc… When was the last time you took time for
others?
Today, this is something rare.
Children do their best to stay away from their parents. Siblings don’t have
time to talk. Parents don’t have time or patience to spend time with their
children. Husbands don’t like to spend time with their wives. Wives don’t like
to spend time taking care of their husbands. Friends don’t have time to keep
their friendships.
Now imagine with God? If people
don’t have time for one another, how will they have time for God?
