Remember the Sabbath Day

I love Sundays. I always have. It is definitely my favorite day of the week. Part of it is because I like not feeling guilty for not doing chores, because we're not supposed to do our chores on Sunday! I like being able to relax and sometimes take naps. But more importantly, it's a day where I can be with my family all day long. It's a day where I get to go to church for 3 full hours and feel the Spirit so strong. Even on Sundays when I'm frustrated with my 4-year old or exhausted keeping up with my 11-month old, I'm still in a location where the Spirit abides so strongly. This past week was pretty difficult. Not anything too awful, just the regular frustrations about my shortcomings as a mom, not reading my scriptures enough, not exercising enough, yelling at my 4-year old, comparing myself to others, just wanting so bad to perfect, and of course always falling short. After all those negative feelings, it was so refreshing and wonderful to be at church today. It was Fast and Testimony meeting and all of the testimonies were so uplifting. And then we went to Sunday School. Right now Zeke and I are participating in a Family Relations Sunday School Class and it was so wonderful to discuss the joy of marriage and how we can create and find joy in our lives. And then in Relief Society, the lesson was Stand Fast through the Storms of Life. The lesson was definitely for me!

"After God ended his work of creation on this earth, he blessed and sanctified his day of rest—the seventh day (see Gen. 2:2–3). When he reiterated the day’s importance through Moses on Mount Sinai, he told the people of Israel: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). That word remember is important. Most of us need daily reminders, such as prayer and scripture study, to keep the Lord and his work in our hearts, but we also need one whole day out of seven to refocus our attention and our hearts on him completely—to rest from worldly things that may too easily work their way to the top of our priority list." (D. Kelly Ogden, “Remember the Sabbath Day,” Ensign, Apr 1994, 46)

I went to high school in Belgium. It was a pretty small high school - my graduating class was only 29. My senior year, me and a good friend who is also LDS (we were the only mormons in our grade) were awarded the honor of being valedictorian and salutatorian. I remember one of my good friends called to congratulate me and in our conversation she stated how impressed she was that me and my LDS friend received that distinction, especially when we didn't do any studying on Sunday and even went to Seminary one evening a week. She told me that she always did a lot of studying on Saturday and Sunday and definitely every evening during the week. For some reason, that conversation has always stuck with me and I'm grateful that I never studied on Sunday.

Of course there are exceptions. Some times we are required to work on Sundays and there can be other reasons -- for example when I lived in Jordan, our Sabbath day was on Friday since we lived in a predominantly muslim country. However, I testify that we need to remember to keep the Sabbath Day holy. One day a week, we should devote more time and energy to renewing our spirits and worshiping our Heavenly Father. I know I have been blessed my keeping this commandment and I am so grateful for His wisdom in giving us the Sabbath day to help us on our journey through life and ultimately back to Him.

I'm ready for another week!!!