Hi, I’m Rachel Fahrenbach, founder of Simply Sabbath and author of the guided journal Rest & Reflect.

With the addition of our third child in 2016, I felt the scales tip in the direction of burnout. I was already tired from the ins and outs of my everyday and the sleepless nights that accompany a newborn pushed me to exhaustion.

I would carry that exhaustion for the next two years, first with resignation (“this is just the season of life we’re in”) and then with bitterness (“why can’t we catch a break?”) as one life-challenge after the next hit us. Soon, that bitterness had developed into an anger that simmered just below the surface. It took every ounce of energy to hold it (and the tears that threatened to flow at any given second) back.

I shared that to give you a sense of where I was when our family started practicing Sabbath two years later in January 2018.

In the month prior to our start, I started to look for any and all information I could find about practicing Sabbath as a Christian family. I struggled to find resources that weren’t just about “resting” or resources written from a man’s perspective that didn’t take into account the life of a mom.

So, I pieced together what I could, wrote something for us to use, and we started practicing this 24-hour period of rest imperfectly.

Part of our practice was an hour where I sat quietly by myself with a journal asking Jesus questions about my identity, purpose, and belonging. And, because I was in a state of rest instead of active study, I was finally able to hear His answers.

I’m a writer and, so naturally, I started sharing online my personal experience with the practice and what God was teaching me through it. I was surprised by the positive response and the question of “can you teach me how to start practicing Sabbath?”

This led to me compiling a guided-journal that others could use to have their own conversation with Jesus about their identity, purpose, and belonging.

Soon after, I started creating content online to help others start their own practice and in December 2021, I launched the Simply Sabbath podcast and YouTube channel which included interviews with other women practicing Sabbath with their families as Christians, as well as my own thoughts and prayers about Sabbath.

In January 2023, I drew the podcast to a close as I felt God pivoting me to focus more on my work as a fiction writer and coach. But, understanding how few resources are out there, I decided keep the Simply Sabbath website, podcast, and YouTube channel accessible for those who are looking for resources on starting a Sabbath practice as a Christian family.

I pray that the resources you find here will support you as you give space to the question “what could it mean for your life to take a Sabbath rest once a week?”

Many blessings to you and your family!

Rachel