Biking on the Sabbath?

Our church runs from 9:00 a.m. until noon.  I love the early schedule, but it also can make for a very long afternoon.  We try so hard to keep the Sabbath different and distinct from other days, while at the same time making it an day of enjoyment and relaxation.  Lets just say that sometimes with five little ones, it is hard to feel relaxed and joyful at the end of Sunday.  So we mix it up a bit and invite friends over for dinner sometimes, or make cookies and take them to people, or play board games, or do crafts.  And yesterday when the beautiful 60ish weather called to all of us, we went for a family bike ride.  Notice I put "family" in there to make me feel okay about it.

We rode on the forest preserve trail, a few miles until we reached the lake.  It was the first time I had taken all of the kids on that trail since last summer when we went every day to train for their triathlon and it brought back memories.

We had a nice conversation with the kids about keeping the Sabbath day holy and John and I got to explain why we felt okay with going on a bike ride.  We also talked about the spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law, and why the church doesn't put out a "list" of acceptable Sabbath activities.  It was a good conversation to have.

The kids had a blast throwing rocks in the water, finding shells, splashing with sticks and skipping rocks.  Then Nathan lost his balance and stepped into the lake, in a deep part.  Then Yummers had a dirty diaper and being the unprepaired mom, I had no clean diaper.  So we left.