Slow Down Beyond Sunday

I recently recalled a long-ago memory of teaching one of my children the alphabet. They asked, “What words use the lemony letter?” Asking them what they meant, they insisted there was a lemony letter. We then said the alphabet together again, and the truth was revealed. L, M, O, P! In their childhood lisp and said very quickly, those letters became "lemony."   

Hiding my laughter, I realized I was partially to blame. I hadn’t taken the time to slow them down to articulate each letter clearly and purposefully. We began again, deliberately saying each and every letter, writing them as we went along, revealing all 26 letters. 

Does Your Life Give You Whiplash

Learning to slow down is important beyond learning to read and write. We can all find ourselves blurring words in texts and conversations. We take shortcuts in recipes and look for the fastest Rosary to follow on YouTube. It seems we want to get through this short life we have been given by God as fast as we possibly can.

Perhaps you have felt the speed of your life is giving you whiplash. Days blur, calendars get overloaded, and exhaustion and stress follow.   

It’s hard, though, isn't it? The demands on our time won’t disappear. I once made the mistake of writing down everything that was expected of me as the mom of a large family and wife of a working husband: homeschooling, church volunteering, each household chore, and on and on. Even making the resulting list made me tired.  

God Commands us to Slow Down 

However, slowing down is a requirement of our faith; remember the third Commandment? 

The seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2168)

Does anyone even do that anymore? And what about life beyond our Sunday rest?  

I am down to the last three young adults at home, which is quite different from the 11 I have, but it seems I am busier than ever. On the road, I recently found myself recalling that long-ago "lemony" discovery. In giving it some thought, it was obvious my days had begun to blur together, I wasn’t articulating myself, and I certainly didn’t feel clear and purposeful. I needed to slow down. 

Ways to Put on the Brakes

Some families put the brakes on their overly busy family schedule by setting aside extra activities for a time: a semester off, an entire year if necessary. Others decide to stagger their busy days or stack them. Everyone is out of the house on the same night or only every other night. They plan to involve the summers and the winters fully. Others wait to sign up their children for full-time sports activities until kids are older, knowing no one is being recruited from t-ball. In other words, every family should see if their time is speeding away and how they will slow it down.  

Rest as a family, or even as an individual, shouldn’t be left for only Sundays and vacations. Just as honoring God needs to occur regularly, resting in Him and for ourselves should as well. Finding a way to slow down in our busy lives is another way we can imitate Jesus—Who himself went away to pray. 

Slowing Down and Finding Rest 

Finding time to pray wasn’t hard for me, as with older kids, I am blessed to have Daily Mass, time for Scripture, and more. It was downtime with my last few kids that I craved. Their part-time jobs, studies, and more pushed family time off the calendar without realizing it—until I did.   

We got together and put slowing down on our family calendar just as we did with any doctor’s appointments and team practices. Now, it is a family dinner more frequently, or lunch together on a Saturday; sometimes it is movie/game night on Friday. We committed to slowing down with each other more frequently. And, we have discovered everyone appreciates it. To my delight, a recently married daughter and her husband are trying to make these events.  

With my family, Sundays are still a day of rest, but it isn’t always together as a family as we once were. My older teens prefer heading to the Newman Center at a nearby university at 11:30 AM, where they linger afterward with friends. My husband and I have discovered the joy of early Mass and making brunch together.

Ensuring family time is planned throughout the month has given us the time to pause and reconnect, as we all have needed. Scheduled moments of slowing down will never win a race, but it has won over our hearts. 

Copyright 2025 Rachel Watkins
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