A few months back I had the opportunity to give a sacrament meeting talk on the topic of 'Remaining Unspotted from the World through Sabbath Day Observance.'
I've chosen to include it in this blog so that my children may one day be able to benefit from it.
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Last month
my family and I had the opportunity to visit the majestic redwood forests of northern
California. These ancient trees are renowned for their size, some are wide
enough to drive a car through, and they can reach over 400 feet in height –
almost as tall as the Church Office Building in downtown Salt Lake City.
They are
also known for their interesting root system. In spite of their height, their
roots are only five or six feet deep but can stretch for one hundred feet in
width. This web of roots not only provides nourishment and stability against
the coastal winds, but it is also one of the ways that this family of trees
expands.
As
conditions are right a coastal redwood will send a signal to its root to sprout
a ‘child tree’. These child trees often
grow around the parent tree creating tight families called Cathedrals. Interestingly enough, the child tree will receive
its nourishment in part by the parent tree, even long after the original tree
is gone. Time after time over thousands of years, the coastal redwoods have
withstood strong winds, fire, insects and other types of outside threats by standing together as families and holding
each other up.
The coastal
redwoods join into cathedral families that last thousands of years. We can be
sealed in temples as families for all eternity.
Elder
Bednard has stated “families provide the spiritual nourishment and stability
that greatly increases the likelihood of sustained faithfulness across the
generations… Multi-generational families are a rich source of the spiritual
nutrients that are necessary to produce posterity of promise.”
According to research conducted by the church, the first and
foremost reason for the cycle of eternal families, or as elder Bednar called
them ‘multi-generational’ families to break is due to weak gospel teaching and
modeling in the home. Most often this rapture occurs between baptism and receiving
the endowment. Conversely, living the Savior’s gospel through teaching and
modeling in our own homes is essential in creating and maintaining
multi-generational Latter Day Saints families.
Let me say it again:
Living the Savior’s gospel through teaching and modeling in our own
homes is essential in creating and maintaining strong, faithful families.
In D&C
59:9-10 the Prophet Joseph Smith shared the following admonition:
9 And that thou mayest more fully keep
thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and
offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
10 For verily this is a day appointed
unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
We have been blessed with a special day
set aside by the Lord for families to come together to leave behind the things
of this world and focus on our relationship with God. ‘The Sabbath was made for man,
and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:
27)
That scripture promises me and you that if we honor the
Sabbath we will be kept unspotted from the world. By participating in the
ordinance of the sacrament we will qualify for the promise that we will “always
have his Spirit to be with us.” That Spirit is the foundation of our testimony.
It testifies of the Father and the Son, brings all things to our remembrance,
and leads us into truth.
When we teach our loved ones, and exemplify this principle we
are providing them with the spiritual nutrients and stability they need to
develop and strengthen their own testimony. Just like in the example of the redwoods
the root of one tree strengthen and nourish the rest of its family.
In our last general conference Sister Cheryl A. Esplin shared
the following experience: Many years ago I attended a meeting where members of
the Young Women general board taught about creating spiritually strong families
and homes. To visually demonstrate this, a Young Women leader held up two soda
cans. In one hand she held a can that was empty and in the other hand a can
that was unopened and full of soda. First, she squeezed the empty can; it began
to bend and then collapsed under the pressure. Next, with her other hand, she
squeezed the unopened can. It held firm. It didn’t bend or collapse like the
empty can—because it was filled.
We likened this demonstration to our individual lives and to
our homes and families. When filled with the Spirit and with gospel truth, we
have the power to withstand the outside forces of the world that surround and
push against us. However, if we are not filled spiritually, we don’t have the
inner strength to resist the outside pressures and can collapse when forces
push against us.
There are
countless influences that threaten our eternal families. By choosing not to work (whenever possible),
as well as avoiding entertainment and spending on the Sabbath, we can elevate
our thoughts, and gain a sense of perspective. However, abstaining from work
and recreation, although important, is not enough.
To observe
it, one is 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.
Another way
to honor the Sabbath is to come together as multi-generational families. By
spending time together and discuss what each of us has learned at church, we
have the opportunity to uncover personal and practical applications to gospel
principles.
Our greatest
influence is within our family: husband and wives, fathers and mothers,
grandparents, aunts and siblings – whatever our role is in the family, we all
have people in our lives who look to us as examples, who trust us, confide in
us, and seek our counsel. Do they know, by the choices you make, where you
stand? Do you teach with conviction in your home the principles that our
Prophet and the scriptures teach us?
From a very
early period in the history of Israel, the Lord’s people observed the Sabbath
as a Holy day. It was a clear differentiation that distinguished Israelites
from pagan people. Today, just as it was then, Sabbath day observance marks us
as covenant people with the Lord and in the eyes of our family.
Earlier this year my husband and I hiked to a beautiful
waterfall located in a tropical forest. In order to reach the waterfall we had
to cross a river multiple times. The path was only marked by strips of pink
fabric once in a very lonely while. There were no bridges. We had to either
walk in the water
It was at the end of one of those crossings that the lens of
the camera we were carrying got wet. The body of the camera was dry and worked
properly, but the lens had several water spots trapped inside of it. Although
the pictures we took looked perfectly fine on the camera display, the actual images
once downloaded onto our computer, were a distorted version of reality.
Eventually the water trapped inside the lens evaporated and all was well again.
One of
Satan’s most frequently used deceptions is the notion that the commandments of
God are meant to restrict freedom and limit happiness. The spots of sin that
stain our lens project a reality that is not truly there. We may feel that we
are not harming anyone when we select to indulge in play and entertainment on
the Sabbath, but by doing so we risk becoming insensitive to the spirit and
losing interest in serving the Lord.
As I prayed
to truly understand the relation between observing the Sabbath as a family and remaining
unspotted from the world the thought came to my mind: “Well Romy, if you don’t
strive to honor your Heavenly Father on HIS day, will you do it the rest of the
week?”
Next month marks the 20th anniversary of the
Family Proclamation to the World. It was during the General Relief Society
Meeting that President Gordon B. Hinkley stood and unequivocally declared: “The
family is ordained of God. Happiness in family life is most likely to be
achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful
marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith,
prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome
recreational activities.”
We have been entrusted to spiritually nourish our family and
to establish posterity of promise. The Lord has given us a day to gather together
as family to join in religious devotion and discussion. As we do so I testify
that He will keep us unspotted from the world, strengthen our family
relationships with each other and with the Lord, guide us, inspire us, and
direct us.
