Edified: Insights for LDS Women
Ep 20. "On Any Given Sunday," Reflecting on our commitment and dedication to keeping the Sabbath Day holy

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Chapters:
3:00 Polly Knight
5:50 Excerpt from journal (25 years ago)
17:56 Looking back
20:00 Obedience brings blessings
21:40 Young mom shares her struggle
23:00 My daughter's story
25:47 Ask this question
27:00 Keeping the Sabbath during the pandemic
33:50 Advice to young moms
36:32 DOT Invitation

Some Key Points:

The ability for us to have church at home during the last five months has been a blessing for many of us, but it has also presented some unique challenges. Like how to maintain a feeling of holiness in our homes when we are surrounded by chaos. Now that we are meeting again in our chapels, some of us are experiencing mixed emotions. We've grown comfortable holding church on our own and on our own schedule. Now is a great time to look forward to how we can rededicate ourselves to Sunday worship and recommit to honoring and keeping the Sabbath Day holy. 

My daughter-in-law relates, “Honestly, the Sabbath is not a delight (not in the least) unless I intentionally make it a delight. Instead of being frustrated that all four children are running in opposite directions and screaming by the end of the first hour, I have to choose to be grateful that they have healthy legs to run, strong lungs to scream, and generous and loving ward members who think they’re cute anyway.”

What an amazing perspective! And it fits perfectly with President Henry B. Eyring’s advice that we can make the Sabbath a delight by expressing our gratitude to the Lord for all of our blessings.

President Nelson has taught us that we don’t need a list of “do’s” and “don'ts” for keeping the Sabbath Day holy. All we need to do is ask ourselves, “What sign am I giving the Lord if I do this particular activity?” 

During this COVID pandemic, we have had an opportunity to give a sign to the Lord by demonstrating our desires to keep the Sabbath Day holy. No one else was looking. Just our family. No one else knows if we chose to dress in our Sunday best. No one else knows what activities we deemed appropriate on Sunday afternoons. This is a great time to reflect on how faithful we were in observing the Sabbath Day during the past 5 months. 

Now that we’ve become used to staying home and doing church on our own time, it might be difficult for some of us to recommit to regular church attendance. But we have a great opportunity here to begin again. To rededicate ourselves to honoring and keeping the Sabbath Day holy. 

The advice I always give to young mothers is to just keep swimming. Maybe you spend ¾ of your time in the foyer at church. Maybe your Sundays are hectic madness, the way mine often were. Maybe you can’t keep your child’s attention for more than five minutes when you try to have family prayer, CFM lessons, or FHE. But just keep swimming! They are picking up more than you realize! I promise you it will all be worth it. 

DO ONE THING 

Reflect on your Sabbath Day observance. What is one thing you can do better? Or one thing you aren’t doing right now, but know that you should? If you’re not sure where to start, ask the Lord to help you. He will answer.

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Have a great week, everyone :-)