Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

Happy Sabbath Everyone!

I had an amazing day as I rested from my labors and spent the day focusing on my Savior. To keep the Sabbath Day holy, I like to do things that are different from the rest of the week. For example, I usually listen to music that has a good beat and something I can sing to. On Sundays however, I make sure that the music I listen to can easily invite the Spirit and will keep my thoughts on Christ. Just a simple change in Pandora stations in the morning when I get ready already starts the day off differently.

One of the biggest ways Sunday is different than Monday-Saturday is the fact that I get to go to church to worship! Today we had fast and testimony meeting. So not only did I go to church, but I went fasting. Sometimes that is harder, but for me today, I felt like it invited the Spirit into my heart a little more. I sat in Sacrament meeting after just having taken the Sacrament and I felt clean. This feeling is hard to describe if you have not felt it yourself. I felt like I was forgiven for all my many faults throughout the week. I felt like Heavenly Father trusted me to take on the world. I felt light and able to conquer the crazy week I have ahead of me. I felt wonderful. Then I was able to listen to the testimonies of others. There are so many members who have such strong testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Listening to their experiences and testimonies just increased my own personal knowledge of the truthfulness of the church!

Sunday School was my favorite part of church today. We were studying Genesis chapter 22. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, which didn't make much sense to him at all. He knew that he had been promised a seed that would fill the earth through Isaac, so why was he asked to sacrifice him? We spent most of the lesson talking about the Cultural Celebration for the Gilbert Temple that happened last week. Arizona does NOT get the rain it needs, but last week when the Prophet was in town to watch the celebration, it just poured and poured and poured. Some of the youth look at that as kinda a let down. Here they have practiced for months and months just to have rain pour the whole performance. In my mind I connected Abraham 22 with this experience. The youth in Gilbert were asked to sacrifice a lot. A lot of time, and an evening being in the rain doing dances and singing when they could be inside not doing those things! But as we learn the doctrine of sacrifice, we understand that sometimes we are to do things that don't make a lot of sense. Rain the day of the celebration, some may say that doesn't make sense. Why couldn't God control the elements and wait for after the celebration for it to rain. Why did He let it pour then?

I know that we are asked to do things that sometimes we don't want to do. As a missionary I invited many people to do things or give up things that they didn't want to. But I have seen in myself and have seen in countless others that when you do something to follow God, He will have your back!

This evening I ended my Sabbath Day by watching the movie The Work and the Glory. It is a historical-fiction story about a family who lived the same time Joseph Smith did. In this movie you see that Joseph Smith was asked to go through a lot that he or his family did not want. He was persecuted and people were horrible to him. But he knew that he had a work to do, and most importantly he knew that the work was from God.

Let us all find what God wants us to be doing and DO IT! If all of God's commandments seem daunting for you to keep all at once, may I suggest starting with an easy one. Keep the Sabbath Day Holy. I have felt so great all day by simply remembering the importance of today! I invite everyone to find ways to set this day apart and remember to follow God as closely as they can!