THIS time of year finds many people entering holiday season. Holidays may vary from a world cruise to a day or two in the local park but there is time for rest and refreshment; a break from the pressures of everyday life.

Schools have finished for the summer and families are spending more time together, enjoying the surprising English weather.

Sometimes finding time for proper rest is difficult. Ministers in the Church are encouraged to take a 24-hour period each week for rest.

A Sabbath day. We would encourage everyone to do the same. This might not always be possible, so how can we be sure to find time to rest?

Some suggest that we might find Sabbath in every day of the week; that it is an attitude rather than a single day. Sabbath is a gift for each of us, one which we should accept gratefully and graciously, and incorporate in to our everyday lives.

Rest is not doing nothing, it is doing something different. So can we find some minutes in the day to focus on what is important in our lives?

We might not have much but do we have someone who loves us; someone to love? Can we focus on the joy children bring this summer holiday between the times of frustration and countdown to school starting again!

If we can find some moments of rest to focus on these things then we might find ourselves growing closer to our creator God. It is that after all which is the point of the Sabbath.