Sabbath Day

When I was a kid, my best friend and I built a fort.  We would sneak off there to hide from her little sister (who probably didn’t want to play with us anyway!) and play for hours.  We built an extensive security system, using rope from her dad’s shed, to keep intruders out.  We did it because this was OUR place.  It was special.  We worked hard to get it exactly like we wanted it and we wanted to be sure that anyone who came in would treat it the same way we did.   I make this reference as a simple metaphor for what keeping the Sabbath Day holy should mean to all of us.  It’s a day set aside by the Lord as His.  It’s special to God, just as my fort was to me.  He expects us to treat this day the same way that He treated it. 

Exodus 20:8-11   
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

We live in a busy world.  With the advent of the cell phone we have become reachable by most anyone anytime.  Our lives are moving at record paces.  We need to take the time to slow down and allow ourselves the opportunity to reconnect with God.  And we need to do it often.  We need to do it weekly.  The Lord has given us the Sabbath Day as an opportunity to keep His commandments.  When we do, our lives are blessed.  I’ve never regretted spending time on Sunday to do His will.  To attend my church meetings, fulfill my calling, visit the sick, study my scriptures, spend time with my family, serve others, etc.  In contrast, during the times in my life when I’ve kept this commandment less consistently I have felt the absence of those blessings.  Not because God didn’t want to give them to me, but because I wasn’t ready to receive them. 

We have the 6 days prior to do the work of the world.  The needful, temporal things to take care of our families, our jobs, our homes, our social activities.  The 7^th is given to us for our benefit and we have been commanded to keep it holy.  As we do, we receive blessings and the opportunity for God to work through us to bless the lives of others.  But the Sabbath Day is much more than just physical rest.  President Spencer W. Kimball (a modern prophet) said:

“The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things. Abstinence from work and recreation is important but insufficient. The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts, and if one merely lounges about doing nothing on the Sabbath, he is breaking it. To observe it, one will be on his knees in prayer, preparing lessons, studying the gospel, meditating, visiting the ill and distressed, sleeping, reading wholesome material, and attending all the meetings of that day to which he is expected. To fail to do these proper things is a transgression on the omission side.” (The Miracle of Forgiveness, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969, pp. 96–97.) 

We abstain from shopping so that we don’t contribute to the impossibility of another to observe this holy day, and we use it instead to do holy things.  I have learned for myself that when I follow the spirit and letter of this law, I have more time during the rest of the week to do the needful things I mentioned above.  I promise that if you too will commit to keep this commandment you will begin have a similar experience and your lives will be blessed with a closer relationship with God.