It's funny how you have no problem with a certain thing that you're doing until someone mentions that maybe you should, in fact, be keeping the fourth commandment, even now. And you shrug it off like it's no big thing, but then God lays out the truth and you're convicted. In a very hard way.

The past two weeks have been terrible. I haven't been utilizing my time as I should, and as a result, have been staying up until 2 or 4 am studying. Part of it was that I had a bajillion exams (at least one a day, sometimes two) and couldn't keep up with just those, but I probably could have been better prepared if I had been keeping up with the readings and other various things beforehand. Hindsight's 20/20 though, and last Monday, I woke up and was ready for the week to be over. I had no time to rest at all and my body was revolting hard core. Conviction, like always, wore me down, and I've decided to start keeping a Sabbath.

Keeping a sabbath seems kind of 'old testiment'ish and very unpractical for today's busy world. But I was reading through the first few chapters of Genesis, about God creating the world, and even He, on the 7th day, took a sabbath and rested. I'm pretty sure He would have been fine to have kept on going, without taking a day of rest - He is, after all, God, right? But I think He was setting an example for us. Our bodies can only take so much work before they collapse. They need time to rest and get their strength back for another week.

I've been wondering what exactly a Sabbath would look like for me since my schedule is absolutely insane and I barely have time for anything. But upon closer inspection, if I actually utilize my time like I should (taking advantage of 2 hour lunches to get some reading done instead of watching tv or being on facebook), I should, in theory, get stuff done. I still don't feel like I have a lot of time (too many commitments), so I'm adjusting my schedule accordingly (no more Salt Company :( ); I really want to use my time wisely. That way, when my Sabbath does come, I can just rest.

So sabbath for me = no homework and no housework. I would love to use this time to visit with friends and hang out. I'm a social person and being by myself makes me very short-tempered and grouchy and being with people is rejuvenating for me.

That being said, this weekend was my chance to recuperate from the hellish 2 weeks I went through. And today was awesome.

I slept in until 11, woke up when my roommate got home, and we decided to clean the apartment. Very thoroughly. Amazingly enough, we finished in just over an hour. Yess!! It looks soooo good now! The power of a clean apartment should never be underestimated! There was more that I would have liked to get accomplished today (progress on a paper due friday), but Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? Growth takes time.

I busted out the guitar again too. I've got a terrible system where I take a week and build up my callouses by playing hard, and then I leave my guitar to gather dust while my callouses wear off. It's a painful process. This cycle, I'm trying hard to learn to 'pluck' the strings for this one particular song - I've never been able to get my fingers coordinated enough for it. But I made good progress tonight! Maybe I'll post it when I get it mastered? (Look for it in a year or so)