"We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention."
We
have had a pronounced emphasis in our ward over the past few months
on the meaning of the Sabbath and the blessings of keeping the
Sabbath day.
The
first person asked to speak about this was our high priest group
leader. He attended a leadership training meeting earlier this year,
and concerns were raised about how to combat the influences of an
increasingly evil world. The counsel for keeping our families safe
was to deepen and recommit our observance of the Sabbath.
When
he heard this, he confessed, his first reaction was, “Huh?”
With all the attacks on our beliefs, our values, and the dangers to
our kids, the best answer was Sabbath-keeping? But when he pondered
that counsel more seriously he said he saw the wisdom.
When
I grew up in suburban Maryland, there were no stores open on Sunday.
Most people don’t know, today, how the 7-11 stores got the
name: they were open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, at a time when
grocers kept more limited hours and were always closed on Sunday.
This
new venture of franchised “convenience” stores was open
on Sunday; that has now become the norm. It offered an immediate
temptation — “just one quick item I need for dinner,”
or the like. Previously, you figured out how to make do because you
had to, and everyone survived.
When
Halloween came on a Sunday one year that I was old enough to notice,
my mother wondered if the neighborhood kids would go out on Saturday
instead, which was her inclination, or Sunday for the calendar date.
She may have talked to a mom or two on the block, but I don’t
know.
I
do know that we decided that it was likely that most would expect the
trick-or-treating to be moved back a night, and so we ventured out on
Saturday evening and found that most of the homes were ready for us.
Most of the children came around to us a day early, and not on the
Sabbath, just by a common sensibility. It wasn’t just us. Can
you imagine that happening today?
We
didn’t go to birthday parties on Sunday, and we didn’t go
shopping. We sometimes went the long way home from church to see the
land where my father told us a temple would be built someday.
The
only time I went to a birthday on a Sunday was for one of my close
school friends, whose family were observant Jews. He couldn’t
have a party on Saturday because that was his Sabbath, and my
mother made a specific exception as a point of respect — a
lesson I still think was valuable. (I think I may have left before
the party was done, in order to get to church for sacrament meeting,
but fourth grade was a long time ago.)
Back
in the day, we went back and forth to church meetings all day on
Sundays. Our fathers (and Aaronic priesthood youth) had priesthood
meeting first. Then they had thirty minutes to go home and fetch
their families to come to Sunday School, which was an hour and a
half.
Then
we all went home for a while and came back in the late afternoon or
early evening for sacrament meeting. Primary and Relief Society were
during the week.
On
Fast Sunday, testimony meeting immediately followed Sunday School.
Three hours, once a month, that gave rise to the child’s
complaint, “Mom, why do they call it fast Sunday when it
goes so long?” But it did give us that time for the afternoon.
At
our house, we had a large Sunday dinner in the afternoon, and a light
supper in the evening after church was all done. It was one of the
things that set the day apart. I continued that with my family.
Then
the consolidated meeting schedule was implemented in 1980. In many
places of the world travel was a burden, and one trip to church for
all the Sunday meetings at once simplified it. Children had to get
used to a long stretch every week, and adults also.
The
brethren advised that one of the purposes was to free up time for
families and ministering to members. We were encouraged to put the
time to worthy use.
Now
we were all done with church at noon. We had been a little casual in
using our between-meetings time. I saw that we were rushing to get
home for the weekly sci-fi theater on one of the television stations,
and I thought, what is wrong with this picture? Will our long Sunday
afternoons become just television time?
We
called a family council and talked about the purposes of this change
in our requirements for attendance. We decided that Sunday would
become a television-free day. The kids could watch a single church
video, and that didn’t mean one apiece — they had to
agree and watch together. If there was something on that would be
uplifting, we would consider it together.
When
one of the neighbors came to ask one of our kids to come out, we
would explain with a smile that Sundays at our house were time for
family and church, and they could play on another day. Once a child
knocked on our door, and as soon as he saw me in my skirt, he said,
“Oh, I forgot, it’s Sunday,” and turned and went
back towards home. I didn’t have to say a word.
Our
children spent time together, and got along better with each other.
We checked with them on Saturday to see that their homework was done.
We might go visit someone or invite someone for dinner, but our
Sabbaths were quieter and our peace at home improved.
We
had music instead of television, and we kept a semblance, at least,
of our Sunday dress. That might mean changing into something
washable and comfortable, but not play clothes. I still do keep
dressed, though I change my dress flats for tennis shoes, because it
helps me remember what day it is.
My
husband and I taught temple preparation class for nine years, and one
of the lessons is on worthiness. The lesson has sections on moral
cleanliness, tithing, keeping the word of wisdom, and keeping the
Sabbath day holy. The first three are directly addressed in the
questions for a temple recommend, but the last is not. It may be
explored by your priesthood leader in an interview, but it is not
explicitly required. Why, then is it an explicit part of that
lesson?
There
is power in our covenants. We come on Sundays to worship and to
renew our baptismal covenants by taking the sacrament. Our
fellowship and service for and with our fellow Saints strengthens our
own lives, and is definitely a part of our covenants.
In Exodus 31:16-17 the
Lord said: “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the
sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a
perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of
Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and
on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”
The
Sabbath is a part of our covenants. In teaching the Old Testament,
it struck me that as he Lord calls upon Israel, generation after
generation, through prophet after prophet, to repent and return to
him he declares two things: that they have gone after idols (which I
would have readily identified) and that they have forsaken his
Sabbaths.
The
Sabbath set the people apart from all the nations or cultures around
them, but the Sabbath is one of the laws written on the heart, not a
checklist.
How
is making the Sabbath day more holy a key principle of keeping
ourselves and our families safe? While the world pushes on us,
bombards us both with demands to give our work every drop of energy
we have and with messages of discouragement, inadequacy, and failure,
our Sabbath lets us set aside all our other worries. Work will wait,
and the Spirit offers assurance, worth, and peace.
I
need my Sabbath Sundays. I need to be replenished by blessing of the
Holy Ghost. I need to connect with the love and testimony of my
fellow servants. I need to serve somewhere and be glad. All of
these things are therapy for my weary soul.
While
the world hammers the messages that immorality is acceptable, that
integrity is not worth hard times, and that nothing really lasts,
setting aside the Sabbath can bring us peace and light, a respite
from all that makes us stumble.
It
will create a spiritual shield around us in which our safety
increases and our vision sharpens. It opens us to a deeper measure
of our Heavenly Father’s blessings, and a deeper sense of his
presence in our lives. Remember that he is constant.
The
contrast between the world’s wickedness and the Lord’s
path to joy becomes more marked every day. The Sabbath will make
such a difference in how much light we see. You don’t have to
choose the same things we did, but choose to cherish it.
Marian J. Stoddard was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in its Maryland suburbs. Her
father grew up in Carson City, Nevada, and her mother in Salt Lake City, so she was always
partly a Westerner at heart, and she ended up raising her family in Washington State. Her family
took road trips all over the United States and Canada, so there were lots of adventures.
The adventures of music, literature, and art were also valued and pursued. Playing tourist always
included the local museums as well as historical sites and places of natural beauty. Discussions
at home, around the dinner table or working in the kitchen, could cover politics, philosophy, or
poetry, with the perspective of the gospel underlying all. Words and ideas, and testimony and
service, were the family currency.
Marian graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland, and attended the
University of Utah as the recipient of the Ralph Hardy Memorial Scholarship, where she was
graduated with honors, receiving a B.A. in English. She also met the love of her life, a law
student, three weeks after her arrival; she jokes that she had to marry him because her mother
always wanted a tenor in the family. (She sings second soprano.) They were married two years
later and have six children and six grandchildren (so far). She treasures her family, her friends,
and her opportunities to serve.
Visit Marian at her blog, greaterthansparrows. You can contact her at
bloggermarian@gmail.com.
Marian and her husband live in Tacoma, Washington. Together they teach those who are
preparing to go to the temple for the first time, and she also teaches a Stake Relief Society
Institute class.