For most of our marriage, Nathan has been encouraging us as a family to do a Sabbath—to set aside a day for worship and rest. I’ve struggled with this . . . we’re busy, and I’ve always felt that I can’t just give up a whole day of checking things off my endless lists. Sometimes I’ve agreed to do it . . . only to fill the “Sabbath” day with other kinds of projects I normally don’t have time to do, much to Nathan’s frustration.
Recently, I was listening to Jennie Allen’s podcast and an interview she did last fall with John Mark Comer. He has a recent book—The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. During the podcast, they talked about how the Cromer family practices Sabbath. They set aside a whole day for rest, worship and fun, beginning with a family dinner and—get this—an enormous cookie! That’s right—they take cookie dough and fill a cast-iron skillet, cook it in the oven, then dump it out with ice cream in the middle of their table. They all share it as they tell their highs and lows for the week.
When I heard this podcast, I suddenly had a new understanding—so that’s what Sabbath is all about?? Taking time to rest and truly enjoy God and His blessings? To be honest, though, the main thing I heard was BIG COOKIE! I can get behind a big cookie in a cast-iron skillet!
With the restrictions of COVID-19, we decided if we were ever going to be able to pull off a real Sabbath, now was the time to try. We’ve enjoyed the last month or so of setting aside a day for rest, for family fun, family worship, and, of course, making and enjoying the big cookie together!
This is the recipe we’ve been using, with some variation:
- We use our famous, dark Madagascar Robert chocolate bars cut into chunks.
- We don’t have any brown sugar, so we do all white except for the extra 2 tablespoons we use local honey.
- We use local Madagascar vanilla extract we’ve made ourselves!
- We leave off the flaky sea salt at the end.
Hope you enjoy—both a huge cookie and the rest God created us to need in Him!
Baker Storycraft 