Sabbath Day

"if thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then salt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 

Isaiah 58:13-14

Hot Chocolate from the Ryma Cafe in Hangzhou, China

     An important day for me to rest from the cares of the world, study the word of the Lord and renew my covenants by attending church. By keeping the sabbath day holy, my life is refreshed and it gives me the strength to endure. Endure what you might ask? The daily events in my life that causes me to reach to the very depths of my soul to see the events though to their completion.  It can be as simple as finding the courage to move to a new land and learning how to function in a foreign society to watching your beautiful, brave daughter struggle to breathe and to live.

     I enjoy the beautiful hymns sung in church. They lift my soul to Heaven and instill in me a belief that this struggle is worth the effort. They also bring me peace and joy. I find a life without peace and joy a very depressing thought.

     I love watching the children at church. I wish I had,been more appreciative of my children's joy and innocence at church when my own children were young.  I was so overburdened with callings, responsibilities, trying to learn the gospel and "fit" the mold of a good LDS woman.  If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have allowed myself to be burdened down with the expectations of others. I would have cherished the moments in my life with my children at church.  I write this so my beautiful daughters may learn from me, cherish and rejoice with your children as you enjoy the great blessing of the sabbath.  I love the gospel, I love the things of the Spirit and so often I wasn't able to convey that to my children

    How I miss sitting with my beautiful babies! I loved our family nights when we would sing song after song. We would each choose a song for singing time, that meant we would sing at least 9 songs during singing time for family home evening.  "Nephi's Courage", "Follow the Prophet", "Book of Mormon Stories"were some of my very favorite songs. The children would sing these so enthusiastically, using hand gestures, they would pump their arm into the air with "I will go, I will do, the things the Lord commands" (in fact, one time during sacrament meeting, for some reason we sang "Nephi's Courage" and there was Dave, up on the stand with the bishopric, singing along, pumping his arm in the air!). 

    One particular family home evening, when Tricia was twelve years old, she taught the lesson. I still remember sitting on our king size bed, all the children gathered around, KC had just had surgery, so she was snuggled up against her mom and the Spirit filled the room surrounding us with all the warmth and joy associated with it.  These are such excellent memories and ones I hope will be recreated for my grandchildren.