Show notes
175. Practicing Sabbath with Shireen Eldridge “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest,” Hebrews 4:11a (NIV) *Transcription Below* Questions We Discuss: Will you both define Sabbath and also give the biblical background for it? What sets us up for frustration especially as moms when we think of Sabbath? What conversations can we begin to have with our family to prepare for this day of rest, worship, and delight? Shireen Eldridge is the Associate Women’s Pastor at Lifegate Church in Omaha NE. She is a mom of 4 school-age kids and married to the Associate Lead Pastor whom she has ministered alongside with since they were married 17yrs ago. She loves sharing about living life in Jesus whether by teaching to many or a one-on-one chat over tea! Connect with Shireen on Facebook or Instagram. Thank You to Our Sponsor: Leman Property Management Company Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“ Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” *Transcription* [00:00:00] <music> Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. [00:00:17] <music> Laura Dugger: Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at Lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook. What is Sabbath? What does the Bible have to say about it, both in the Old and New Testament? As busy parents, what does this actually look like in modern times? If you've ever thought about any of those questions before, you're going to love what my guest, Shireen Eldridge, has to share on today's topic. She's going to explain how the Sabbath is both a gift and a guardrail for us, and ultimately, a practice worth implementing into our lives to stay connected to God. Here's our chat. Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, Shireen. [00:01:18] Shireen Eldridge: Hi! So excited to be here! Laura Dugger: Well, I can't wait for this chat. But just to get started, will you tell us a bit more about yourself and your story? Shireen Eldridge: Yeah, I'd love to. So I am in Omaha, Nebraska. We are originally from Georgia. That's where I grew up. My husband and I met at the University of Georgia. We both felt called into ministry, and we worked on campus for a couple years there. And then God just started kind of moving things in our hearts. I ended up going to nursing school and then had a baby, and then God called us out of campus ministry there and moved us to Omaha, Nebraska. God called us to a great church here. We've done young adult ministry here. We really only thought we were going to be here for like a couple years, right, and then something else would move on. But He kept us here, and things just kind of evolved, and He opened more doors. [00:02:20] We did campus ministry for a while, had more kids, lots of kids. I was a stay-at-home mom during that whole season with four kids and back-to-back. Then my husband stepped into being a campus pastor, and now he is on track to become the new lead pastor in a couple years. I am on staff now, funny enough. After thinking I was going to go back into nursing after having all my kids, God opened the door for me to be on staff at our church, and I love it. We love doing ministry together. That has always been our heart. My kids are a little more grown up now. I'm not in little kid phase, which is weird because I felt like I was in it for so long. They are fourteen, twelve, ten, and eight. That's where we are. We love doing ministry together and even as a family. We're just doing that church life here in Omaha. [00:03:19] Laura Dugger: Well, and Sabbath has been a big part of your life in recent years. So will you both define Sabbath and also give the biblical background for it? Shireen Eldridge: Yes, yes. That is something that we honestly discovered a little too late in life and really, I thought it wasn't something that could be done with kids or family. I quickly discovered it is a beautiful gift for all of us. So, yes, I love to talk about Sabbath. The word Sabbath (Shabbat) actually means to stop, to cease, to completely stop everything you're doing in your life for a full 24-hour period. That was God's design. In Exodus 20, you can read through the commandments, and it is actually the hinge commandment. Many scholars believe it's right there in the middle because it connects the first few, which are pointed more towards God, our relationship with God. [00:04:20] And then is the commandment of Sabbath. And then right after Sabbath, it's all these other commandments that are about our relationship with others. So I love to think of it as a picture of a hinge on the cross, right? Right in between the two, our relationship with God, this vertical relationship with God, and then this outward, outstretched relationship with others. Sabbath is what helps us with both. That's why people call it this hinge commandment. So if you go to the Ten Commandments and you read through it, one of the words you'll see is "remember". God says that a lot, actually, when he's talking about Sabbath in Exodus and reminding the Israelites about Sabbath. He uses that word a lot. Remember the Sabbath. Remember to keep the Sabbath. I think that word has kind of a twofold meaning. First, if you know the story of the Israelites, they had just come out of 400 years of slavery. [00:05:23] All they knew through their whole life was work for generations. And He knew that they would be prone to forget, they would be prone to going back to that type of lifestyle. Because it was natural, it was what they knew, it actually became comfortable for them. And He had to say, remember, remember to keep the Sabbath. This is so important. Don't forget because you will be prone to forget. I think that's still an important word for us today. Remember the Sabbath because we can also be prone to forget. We can also be pulled into the ways of our world and our culture. Then the other thing is that word is a nod back to creation. Remember. Remember what I did early on, back in the beginning. Remember that story. And I love it because then it sends you back to the creation story in Genesis 2, where God just spent this whole seven days creating this beautiful earth. [00:06:28] And then at the very end, He creates man and woman and their first day on earth with God, walking in the garden, enjoying creation, was Sabbath. Their first day on earth was a day of rest, of stopping, of enjoying. They walked through this new creation with God. And God just got to point out, like, look at this. And they're going, wow, you made that? What is that? That's amazing. You know? And I just picture it as, wow, what an amazing way to start a life. I think the other really great place to go after you look at it in the Old Testament is we always want to go and say, what does Jesus have to say? Because He came to fulfill everything. And He's got something to say about Sabbath. And I love what Jesus says. When He's talking to the Pharisees, He reminds them man was not made for Sabbath. Sabbath was made for man. [00:07:31] Sabbath is a gift to us. We were not created to keep Sabbath. Like, it wasn't actually a law that we had to keep to earn salvation, to earn God's love. No, it is a gift that God gave to us. It's actually more of a freedom commandment when we look at it that way. And I think Jesus was trying to kind of change our thinking in that. Those are great places for people to start. That's just like a drop in the bucket. And maybe people will want to go back and reread those and kind of dive more into those. But that's where I have always started and what has really stuck with me when I dive into understanding this scripturally. Laura Dugger: Well, like you said, you're a mother of four and you're active in ministry. So I'm assuming that a lot of parents can relate to that. But when you think back, Shireen, when and why did you begin getting intentional about practicing Sabbath? [00:08:35] Shireen Eldridge: I had heard people talk about it a little bit growing up. It wasn't something that I had heard many people talk about. And you hear the word rest. Because of culture, I had learned that, you know, you have to earn it. You have to get to the end. And I'm naturally kind of a striver and I lean more towards just wanting to get the things done first and then I can relax. Especially, I think, as a mom, right, when you have all these people and you have to provide for all them, it's natural that we think, Okay, I have to get all this done, then I can put my feet up. When actually, you know, when I started learning about it and thankfully even coming here to this church that we're at, there is a culture of rest that we learned from. The harder part is actually practicing it, right? It's one thing to put it into your mind and to learn about it. It's another thing to actually start doing it. And it is a hard practice sometimes to put in place because you have to make adjustments for it. [00:09:35] I think for us, the why, like the reason we finally gave in is we realized we needed it. We realized in our hearts, in our spirits, in our bodies, with four kids doing ministry, doing the work we were doing, we absolutely needed it and we were going to run ourselves into the ground if we didn't make effort to practice Sabbath. So about seven years ago, a little bit before that, we were talking about, we were reading about... my husband actually was like, "I really think we need this." I think because we knew that it was something, a gift God had for us. And eventually as we grew into it, because we keep saying it, it's a practice, that we knew it was something the longer we gave time for it, took time to learn and grow in it, that we would get better at it. Laura Dugger: Well, and if I'm doing the math correctly, that means that you were starting approximately the time that your kids were seven, five, three, and one. [00:10:34] And then you've got these next seven years of experience. Just thinking of that from the lens of a mother, what sets us up for frustration, especially as moms, when we think of Sabbath? Shireen Eldridge: I think one of the things is, I think we think a lot of times it's just about us and getting a break. I know I did. That was my first thought is like, you mean I get a break? Oh, yes, I'm in. And then I quickly realized with a baby still and changing diapers and still need to feed people, it's not a full break the way I wanted. I wanted like a sit by the pool break. I don't know what I was thinking. That is not what Sabbath is. And to remember that it isn't just about us. When you are a mom, when you're married, even before kids, when you're a roommate, but especially when you are a wife and mom and have children, you have to remember you're practicing Sabbath with other people. [00:11:34] It's different if one person is just starting out on their own. Like if you're single and you live alone, you know, it's easy to kind of be intentional and really structured with your Sabbath. When you are someone who lives at home with five other people, you have to start by thinking differently. This isn't just about you and getting a break. It's more than that. When you understand the biblical understanding of Sabbath and understand that it's rest in Jesus, it's realigning your heart and your thoughts and your mind and your body and your emotions towards him. It becomes more than just I need a break. I think once we change our thinking on what it is, it helps for moms and their expectations. Right? We can set up our expectations and then we'll just get crushed or we can have realistic and really reframe our expectations for what this is. And that can help us. [00:12:31] I think also as a mom, I know for me, especially if you're a stay-at-home mom, but even moms who work outside the home, you come home and it's like, oh, I still have to work. Like this is still my job, taking care of these kids and cooking and cleaning and all these things. And sometimes what I had noticed for myself is I had seen my kids as a distraction to the things I needed to get done during my day. I needed to get laundry done. I needed to clean my house. I needed to prep for groceries and cook dinner and do all these things. And sometimes my kids were like a little bit of a distraction. And what I think we have to do is reframe that and say, wait a second. The actual distractions are these things we do, like the laundry and…
Full show notes at the publisher 
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
