I'm honored to address you today and feel a great responsibility to say something that will be worthwhile for you to hear. My prayer is that you'll hear the voice of the Spirit in your mind and heart as I do my best to teach true doctrine and bear pure testimony.
Before moving here we lived in southwest Minnesota for eight years in a house built in 1896; it was a large four story Victorian mansion. I called it "The Stairmaster". While it was structurally sound, it was suffering from a century of benign neglect.
As I worked on that house, cleaning it, repairing it and making plans to refurbish it I felt inspired that the house was a metaphor for life. Through daily, weekly and seasonal maintenance and repairs we can keep both our physical homes and our spiritual lives orderly, in good repair, and thriving.
Daily prayer and scripture study can be compared to daily housekeeping. Communing with our Heavenly Father and studying His words daily keeps our spirits clean and aligned with His goal for us of immortality and eternal life. It takes just minutes to read, ponder and pray each day, but those acts serve to keep us on the covenant path, holding fast to the iron rod, pressing forward with steadfastness in Christ. When we neglect these daily devotions, our spirits get dusty with the debris of worldliness that can result in a big mess that takes time and effort to clean up. How much better to keep up our spiritual housekeeping daily.
We can compare seasonal deep cleaning to participating in General Conference. We set aside time from our usual routine to hear the counsel of our prophets, apostles and other leaders; then look into the deep recesses of our souls and make adjustments to our lives, repenting, repairing and maintaining our souls before problems get too big. I love General Conference for the chance it gives me to measure my obedience, how well I’m doing.
I’d like to talk today about the level of maintenance between daily and semi-annual. This is more than just a quick wipe down or tidy up. It is meant to clean and keep organized each room, noticing anything that may have been missed or overlooked due to lack of time in a daily clean up.
The Lord has blessed us with a day each week to accomplish a more thorough job on our spiritual houses. He set the pattern from the beginning of the existence of this earth.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
(Genesis 2:1-3)
The Law of the Sabbath is as old as Adam and Eve. It was known among those who followed the prophets of the Old Testament. The Lord spoke of it to Moses even before it was codified as part of the Ten Commandments. Instructing Moses about the gathering of manna the Lord said to gather twice as much on the sixth day for “Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake today, . . . and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” (Exodus 16:23) This was the only time the Israelites could save manna overnight. Any other time the manna “bred worms and stank.” (Exo. 16:20)
Subsequently, Jehovah revealed to Moses the law for His people. Listen to the language of the Lord recorded in what is now known as The Ten Commandments:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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. 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. (Exodus 20:8-11)
Later Moses records further instruction about the Sabbath: “Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid and the stranger, may be refreshed.” (Exodus 23:12)
The first time we moved to Iowa in 2010 I looked for a grocery store that was closed on Sunday. I did so because of a story I'd heard about President Joseph Fielding Smith told by then Presiding Bishop H. David Burton in 1998.
When Sister Burton and I were first married, we lived in the southeast part of the Salt Lake Valley. On occasion, as we purchased groceries from a small neighborhood store, we observed President and Sister Joseph Fielding Smith in the same store making their purchases. After several such observations, I finally mustered the courage to inquire of President Smith why it was he traveled all the way from downtown, past a dozen grocery stores, to shop at this particular store. Looking over the tops of his glasses he emphatically said: “Son! . . . Sister Smith and I patronize establishments that keep the Sabbath day holy. (General Conference October 1998)
This story so affected me that after that I too sought out stores that honored the Sabbath. They aren’t easy to find. In Iowa I found Fareway; and in looking on their website was interested to find the story of their founding.
Fareway's policy of being closed on Sunday has been in place for as long as our company has been in existence. We believe our customers, employees, and business partners deserve a day at home with their families - free from the fast-paced life we all live the other six days of the week.
The idea of resting on Sunday is something our founder, Paul S. Beckwith, firmly believed; in part because of his religious beliefs and a story told to him by his father. Paul's father was a pioneer who traveled to new territory by wagon train. Some pioneers were in a hurry, and drove on every day, leaving behind those who stopped for a day of rest and worship. As settlers continued to move westward, families who had taken Sunday off began to catch-up with those who had pushed ahead; finding broken-down wagons, lame animals, and weary people. Paul's father told him he decided that the Bible was right; neither man nor beast was made to work seven days a week.
(https://www.fareway.com/about/values)
While still on Mount Sinai, the Lord further instructed Moses, “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: . . . Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord, whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. . . It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:13-17)
Fortunately, we are not put to death physically for breaking the Sabbath; but we still die a little each time we don’t keep the Sabbath holy. We become spiritually dead and disconnected from God.
Many years ago when Steve was a new member of the church and our five children (four boys) were young and rambunctious, we argued about how best to keep the Sabbath day. He asked me, “Why do we have to do things your way?” To which I responded, “I don’t want to do things my way, I want to do them the Lord’s way.”
So what is the Lord’s way of keeping the Sabbath? We can read Luke’s account of one Sabbath when the Pharisees took Jesus to task because he healed a man’s hand. Jesus responded, “I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or, to do evil? To save life, or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9) That's an easy distinction! To do good and to save life! We are asked to rest from OUR labors on the Sabbath, and engage in HIS labors, to do good and to save life.
How many things can you think of that come under those categories?
We can ask ourselves of our activities: Is this doing good? Is this saving life? Especially spiritual life?
Mormon gives us a good way to assess our choices.
But behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man that he may know good from evil; wherefore I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. (Moroni 7:15-16)
Remembering what the Lord said to Moses about keeping the Sabbath as a sign of a covenant, Elder Russell M. Nelson taught us:
In my much younger years, I studied the work of others who had compiled lists of things to do and things not to do on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until later that I learned from the scriptures that my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father.12 With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, “What sign do I want to give to God?” That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear. (General Conference April 2015)
Keeping the Sabbath day holy and doing good takes daily preparation, especially with children who need to practice being reverent and feeling reverence throughout the week so that church worship and Sabbath observance isn't foreign and unusual to them.
Those of us who have been baptized prepare for the Sabbath by studying for our classes, whether to teach or participate; by examining ourselves and repenting so we come to church ready to partake of the Sacrament to renew our covenants.
It is a delight to see fellow saints each Sunday, sing the hymns of Zion together, partake of the sacred emblems of the Sacrament; discuss the gospel together sharing insights and testimony gained through daily study; to feel united, “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens . . . of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19); to feel refreshed by laying aside our worldly cares and activities to “do good” and to “save lives”.
Elder Bednar said, "One of the greatest challenges each of us faces every day is to not allow the concerns of this world to so dominate our time and energy that we neglect the eternal things that matter most. We can be too easily diverted from remembering and focusing upon essential spiritual priorities because of our many responsibilities and busy schedules. Sometimes we try to run so fast that we may forget where we are going and why we are running." (October 2017)
I know from my own experiences that when I keep the Sabbath day different from the rest of the week, keeping it holy and special, when I participate in the Lord's work, I feel the blessings of strength and refreshment from doing so. When we do things the Lord’s way he pours out His blessings, we feel His love and approval, and we accomplish what we were sent here to do.
I testify that Our Father in Heaven is real, He shows His love for us by giving His Only Begotten son, Jesus Christ, our elder brother, to be our Savior and Redeemer. We are led today by prophets and apostles who continually teach us and encourage us to Keep the Sabbath Day Holy, as a sign of our covenant with God, and in preparation for the Savior's glorious return.
May we be blessed to do so, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
