Through small and simple means, our Sabbath day worship can be about spiritual rest rather than the guilt trips of the to-do (and to-don’t) list.
Photo by Aleksandar Popovski
I was an energetic kid growing up, so three hours of church felt like an eternity. It was all my mother could do to keep me in my pantyhose, let alone sitting reverently in the pew. Fast forward to my more adult years—and away from the pantyhose trend—and sitting through church is still difficult. Sabbath day worship and all-day reverence is even more so.
In her blog post “Sabbath Worship Drop by Drop,” Ariel Szuch explains how lessons about Sabbath day worship can be so guilt-inducing. It’s a difficult commandment that most of us are still working on: we’re late; we don’t think holy thoughts for the full 24 hours; our houses are dirty; we didn’t read the scriptures. The list could go on and on. However, she found courage in Alma 37:6, which reminds us that “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”
Szuch didn’t take courage to tackle the long to-do list many people create for supposedly proper Sabbath day observance, but decided instead to “drop by drop” add oil to her lamp of spiritual reserves for the week. She found that by taking a few minutes to read the sacrament prayers, saying a prayer of gratitude for the Savior as she took the sacrament, or even thinking about what she’s grateful for while in the shower, she was able to add drops of oil to her spiritual reserves. Szuch concludes, “Every effort counts.”
Keeping the Sabbath day holy should not be a mammoth list of tasks but a quiet, humble responsibility for our own benefit. I’m grateful for Szuch’s reminder of that.
For more gems from Ariel Szuch on Sabbath day observance, read the rest of her post “Sabbath Worship Drop by Drop.”
Source: LDS.org Blog
—Madeleine Lewis Smith, Mormon Insights
feature image by samantha sophia
Find more insights
Read Alyssa Nielsen’s journey to reclaim spiritual rest “little by little” on the Sabbath in her Mormon Insights article “Sunday Blues and Sabbath Delights.”
Watch or read President Russell M. Nelson’s talk “The Sabbath Is a Delight.”
I love how you say that one of the things that Szuch does is think about what she’s grateful for while she showers. That’s seems like it would be really easy to do. I’ll have to start trying it out.