Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

The older I get, the more I crave and love the Sabbath day because of how rejuvenated I feel after it. It gives me added strength and motivation to live better in the coming week, and that things will always get better. It actually makes me sad when I see people doing things that don't honor the Sabbath day because I know they lose out. What a blessing I was taught from a young age how to appropriately live the Sabbath. Although I didn't always love it at the time, sometimes Sundays were just boring to me, church wasn't always riveting, we wouldn't watch tv, or play with friends and do homework, etc. They are never boring any longer however! And I think a huge portion of that is I have an understanding of what appropriate activities to do on the Sabbath, because if we merely "lounge about doing nothing on the Sabbath we [also] fail to keep the day holy." (True to the Faith, p 146)

I'm grateful to have a husband that also has a testimony of keeping this day holy, and is similar to me in how I feel the day should be observed. One important way we have found to observe the sabbath is by staying dressed up in our Sunday clothes all day. I hate wearing dresses, so this is a big sacrifice for me, but in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet written by the First Presidency it states "Your dress before, during, and after church meetings should show respect for the Sabbath" Elder L. Tom Perry cautions that "our actions seem to follow the type of clothing we wear." How true, and isn't it interesting with the world's standards going downhill, the dress is going down and much more casual as well, in concerts at the Symphony Hall, at church on Sunday, and other places people are not feeling the need to dress up or differently than they do while running errands or playing at the park.

But this post isn't a list of things you should and should not be doing on the Sabbath. I just wanted to have you guys to realize this next thought about the Sabbath from of course the institute manual.

" Holidays are Holy Days. A break from the rigors of work, makes him more sensitive to things of the spirit if he has a break. The feasts and festivals were given by revelation to lift the spirit as well as rest the body. Like all other parts of the Mosaic law, the feasts and festivals also pointed to Christ.

The most important and most frequent of the Lord’s holy days was the Sabbath

By ceasing from his own work and remembering the Lord’s work, which is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” ( Moses 1:39 ), man would be drawn to God. This was the purpose of all the feasts and festivals as well as the purpose of the Sabbath."

The Sabbath is a gift to us from Heavenly Father. I know I absolutely love it, and am grateful for this important day of the week for me and my family. Yay for commandments!