Happy Sunday

Today has been a really wonderful day. I am fortunate enough to play piano for the Primary at church, which is the organization for the kids ages 3-12. I love playing for them and with them. I love being able to help them recognize the power of music and use it to worship. We work all year long to teach the kids about Christ and the gospel and they work to memorize songs and scriptures and learn gospel concepts. Every year around this time the kids put on a program for everyone and today was the day! It came together beautifully and I was so proud of all the kids' hard work and ability to share what they have learned and their testimonies of Christ. I absolutely loved it. The kids sang 7 or 8 songs, but this one was my favorite.

Not too long ago, I was asked to speak in church and several people who weren't able to listen have asked me to share my thoughts here. Back in April 2015, Elder Russell M. Nelson gave a talk called The Sabbath is a Delight and I have spent a fair amount of time since then thinking about the Sabbath, so I decided to study it out and talk about what the Sabbath means to me. So here it goes.

A few years ago for a Relief Society activity the sisters in my ward did a project called Sunday "Cans". It was a can full of popsicle sticks with ideas for things to do on Sunday to prevent boredom and help teach our families about appropriate activities for Sunday. It's easy to think of what not to do on Sunday, but sometimes it is a little difficult to find good things to do or keep kids busy. So instead of focusing on what we should not be doing, we came up with over 100 ideas of things we can do.

Having that can full of ideas was really useful to my family, but after the recent focus on the Sabbath throughout the church, I realized that although keeping the Sabbath day holy is a commandment to honor Heavenly Father, it is more than that and it is for our benefit, not His. The Sabbath is a day of purposeful remembrance of our Savior and His atoning sacrifice and Sabbath day observance can help us stay focused on Christ all week long.

In the very beginning of time as we know it, Christ modeled Sabbath day observance for us. He worked for six days to create the earth and everything that is in it and He rested on the seventh day. After giving us this example, Christ has repeatedly commanded His people to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

When Moses went to Mt. Sinai, the Lord revealed His law to Moses. Moses then went down the mountain to teach the Isrealites, but found them worshiping idols. They had abandoned their God, who had just delivered them from slavery to the Egyptians, and had tossed His commandments out the window. The Isrealites were not ready for everything Christ had revealed to Moses, so they got the condensed version. Moses went back up the mountain and came back down with just ten simple commandments. Included among these most basic and most important commandments was the commandment to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." They had been given Christ's example of keeping the Sabbath and to help them remember their God and His goodness and mercy in delivering them from Egypt, the Isrealites were commanded to dedicate one day each week to the Lord.

We can find the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy repeated many times throughout the Old Testament. We know that the Sabbath was still in full force when Christ was on the earth because the Pharisees frequently contended with Christ on how to properly honor this holy day.

This commandment still applies to us today. In 1831, the prophet Joseph Smith received the revelation that is now Section 59 of the Doctrine and Covenants, in which the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy was reiterated.

"Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things. Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; for verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High."

"That [we may] more fully keep [ourselves] unspotted from the world," we are to remember the Sabbath. Remember the Lord's goodness and mercy and sacrifice for us, and keep it holy by respecting the boundaries that Heavenly Father has set for this one day each week and dedicating it to Him.

We are asked to give a broken heart and a contrite spirit - the Lord wants humility and respect. And just like in the Old Testament, we offer our first and our best. We offer the first day of the week, not the last. In return, he blesses us greatly. In Leviticus 26, the Lord tell us the blessings of keeping the Sabbath.

"Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. ...
For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. ...
And I will set my tabernacle among you...
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people."

Elder Earl C. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy talked about these blessings in a talk called Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. He said, "We can relate to the promises of the Lord in this modern-day world. Do we not need today, just as the Israelites did in the Old Testament, to have the land yield her increase and the trees of the field yield their fruit? Do we not also need to have rain in due season and peace in the land and to be able to lie down and not be afraid and to not have the sword or wars go through our land? Do we not also want the Lord to have respect for us and help us be fruitful and multiply and establish His covenant with us? All of these promises apply to us today."

In Mark 2:27, Christ said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." In addition to the prosperity, peace, and respect of the Lord promised in Leviticus, the Sabbath is a blessing in and of itself.  President Eyring said, "The greatest test of life is to see whether we will hearken to and obey God's commands in the midst of the storms of life. It is not to endure the storms, but to choose the right while they rage." That sort of effort and strength requires support. The Sabbath day is our support. It is a day to learn of Christ, remember our promises, and to find peace in the turmoil.

The Sabbath is also a day of rest. A chance to catch our breath, find our strength, and renew our testimonies after 6 days of demanding work, in whatever form our lives present it. D&C 59 called the Sabbath "a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors." It is a day of rest physically and spiritually. We pause our physical labors to be able to devote our energy to our spiritual renewal, which we do by worshiping the Lord, taking the sacrament and remembering Christ's atonement, studying the scriptures, serving others, and spending meaningful time with our families.

The Sabbath is a day of healing. To prepare for the sacrament, we take mental inventory and repent of our mistakes, cleansing our hearts and our consciences. In taking the sacrament, we renew our promises to follow the Lord and start fresh. In attending our church meetings, we learn about Heavenly Father, His plan for us, and how we fit into it. At home, we have time to pray, seeking comfort during our trials. Surely, "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."

Everyone's Sabbath day observance is going to look different from the next person's and it's very difficult to create a comprehensive list of appropriate Sunday activities. The Pharisees - the spiritual leaders during Christ's life - tried to spell out proper Sabbath observance and failed. The lists can help us to find activities that invite the Spirit to be with us, activities that will help us to draw near to the Lord, but they are just ideas.

Elder Tingey told a story that illustrates four important concepts. He said, "I learned to observe the Sabbath day from my parents. I grew up on a large farm where we had animals to feed and care for, cows to milk, and vegetables to pick, harvest, and market. It would have been very easy for our family to break to the Sabbath day. Although we attended to essential chores on Sunday - such as feeding the animals, milking the cows, and taking the water turns when they came - we never did farmwork on Sunday that could be done at other times during the weeks. Our tractors were turned off, and no plowing, planting, or cultivating were done on the Sabbath. We never hauled in the hay before a coming storm. My parents had a very simple philosophy: 'The day we violate the Sabbath day and have to miss our Sunday meetings to care for the farm is the day we sell the farm.'"

First, Elder Tingey learned from his parents. We have a responsibility to teach by example. I grew  up in the LDS church, but I didn't gain a testimony of it until after I left home. Although my parents worked hard to teach and to set a good example, I found myself breaking as many rules as I thought I could possibly get away with without screwing up relationships. At the time, I had no interest in being a member of the LDS church or following their rules, but I learned the importance of drawing near to the Savior. Eventually, my parents' example and my need to find direction brought me back to the gospel. Today I have a testimony that even when it doesn't look like we are succeeding, the Lord blesses our efforts to teach our children and lead them to Christ. It is important to not give up, but to lovingly teach by example.

Second, there are some things that qualify as physical work that are absolutely necessary to do on Sunday. For Elder Tingey, it was taking care of the animals. For me now, it is taking care of my children. When I worked as a CNA, I was sometimes on the clock taking care of my patients. But, third, we can prepare for Sunday by minimizing our responsibilities so we still have rest and renewal. And fourth and finally, Elder Tingey's family was aware of the demands and made conscious effort to stick to their commitment to keep the Sabbath day holy. He said they never hauled in the hay before a coming storm! There must have been times that choosing to observe the Sabbath day cost them financially on their farm, but I know that the Lord blesses those who obey. And I know that eventually the blessings always outweigh the losses.

In his talk The Sabbath is a Delight, Elder Russell M. Nelson said, "I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father. With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don'ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, "What sign do I want to give to God?" That question made my choice about the Sabbath day crystal clear."

I ask myself 3 questions. "Does it help your relationship with Heavenly Father? Does it help your relationship with your family? Does it prevent anyone else from having the choice to keep the Sabbath day holy?" Asking ourselves these same questions and giving ourselves honest answers will help us find the best choices for Sunday activities.

I am grateful for the Sabbath day. It is not about the "do"s and "don't"s. It is a gift from our loving Heavenly Father to help us remember our Savior and His goodness and mercy toward us that brings strength, rest, knowledge, and healing both physically and spiritually. It is a reminder to stay focused on Christ, our guide through a very difficult journey through life.


I know that was super long. It was a 20 minute speech! For those of you who read to the end, thank you and I hope that you enjoyed it. Enjoy your week!