First, I just need to say I thought I knew what it meant to keep the Sabbath day holy, but I'm still learning while also trying to teach our kids at the same time.
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (see Exodus 20:8–11).
When I was little, I'd go to church and learn things about the Sabbath day, then come home and we'd be doing something totally different. I mean... my parents they tried to keep it holy how THEY believed it was supposed to be kept. I do believe in line-upon-line, so we should be patient with those who don't understand or even know how to apply all of the gospel principles at once. However, I now know going to Sizzler (a restaurant) because we didn't want my mom to "work," is not exactly what I think the Lord had in mind when he said:
"But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;" [Mosiah 13:18]I love my parents and they have shaped who I am, and although they are divorced, they are still mine forever (the logistics of forever, I was told the Lord will work out later)! They were at a different level of conversion than others. Aren't we all, really? My mom had been Catholic up until I was like 2 or so, I cut her a lot of slack for not knowing, but my dad should have known a little better. However, after I've been now married for 15yrs, I also believe he genuinely thought he was doing his wife a real favor. Sweet, yeah?
“Call the sabbath a delight” (Isaiah 58:13).Sundays, however were the only days our entire family was together, and that I knew was so important. Sure, we'd be at Sizzler, but we were there with both my parents (rare), my 2 grandmas and my grandpa. To have my parents together in the first place was a delight, with my mom's 2-3 jobs and my dad working all the time too, it was hard to have time together unless it was late at night. We used to eat dinner at like 9pm! Hispanic families kind of do that and think it's normal. If my kids are up at 9pm, that means something went wrong. LOL So, life was ok on Sundays and I didn't really say anything because I loved us being together. Yeah we did other things we shouldn't have on the Sabbath day and didn't keep it holy all of the time, but I'm not going to list those because in the end, I just loved being with them and we know the Sabbath day isn't about what we CAN'T do.
The prophet Spencer W. Kimball counseled: “The Sabbath is a holy day in which to do worthy and holy things. Abstinence from work and recreation is important but insufficient. The Sabbath calls for constructive thoughts and acts, and if one merely lounges about doing nothing on the Sabbath, he is breaking it." [The Miracle of Forgiveness (1969), 96–97.]Years have now gone by (won't tell you how many, not that it's a huge secret but it could scare me to calculate it out), and I'm just now starting to understand what "keeping the Sabbath day holy" really means. I try and teach my kids, it's not about the things I CAN'T do but things I CAN do to "come unto Him" to be closer to my Savior, to be more like Him, to emulate Him and just feel of His love for me as I do those things with my family which will bring them closer to the Savior too. My 7yr old still thinks Sundays are super boring for him because he "can't" play outside. LOL But he makes progress, he's now the one who is exemplary in staying in his Church clothes all Sunday to remind him to keep it holy. His own words! I'm proud of him, he is already doing so much better than I was at his age.
100+ Ideas for #HisDay
- Partake of the Sacrament
- Fast
- Pray
- Personal Scripture Study
- Attend all Church meetings
- Read your Patriarchal Blessing
- Drop by a friend's house
- Visit a sister you Visit Teach or family you Home Teach
- Write in your journal
- Share your testimony at the pulpit, online, in your journal or write and mail it to someone.
- Family scripture study
- Build a Church for your @Lego Minifigures
- Study Preach My Gospel and role-play missionary conversations.
- Read a general conference talk
- Discuss a #LDSConf talk at meal times.
- Build a Temple out of #Legos (simple or complex)
- Invite a family in the ward you would like to know better.
- Invite a family you home or visit teach for dinner and a message.
- Memorize “The Living Christ” and recite it as a family.
- Watch "I'm a mormon" videos
- Have a family council.
- Make treats to welcome new families into your neighborhood.
- Have a family testimony meeting.
- Create a dry erase “Grateful For …” frame, change it everyday. Example here.
- Spotlight an ancestor.
- Make up a gospel-themed game.
- Create a "#HisDay Can do Can" for things you can do on Sabbath Sunday.
- Go on a family walk.
- Color a picture from the Friend Magazine. (Pick one to print here)
- Go to church early and say hi to the early birds/widows/elderly.
- Memorize or practice writing an Article of Faith
- Play Gospel themed Charades. (already made up!)
- Act out a scripture story.
- Serve someone in your family, secretly!
- Write thank-you notes to the people who spoke at Church.
- Write thank-you notes to teachers.
- Memorize a Church hymn.
- Watch a Church DVD.
- Prepare family names for #TempleTuesday
- Read the New Era magazine
- Find a month’s worth of inspiring quotes, and text them to friends and family every day for 30 days. Here's a page with a whole lot of quotes.
- Create or share a Gospel Meme. (Here are a ton to choose from)
- Start, or catch up on a Scripture Challenge
- Listen to music or a podcast on the Mormon Channel.
- Watch the new Bible Stories for Children videos on the Mormon Channel.
- Give someone a ride to church.
- Visit or call a grandparent
- Read the Ensign
- Make a recording of you reading The Book of Mormon. (I love to use Voice Memos App on my phone)
- Listen to the Ensign
- Put the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on in the background while you go about your Sunday.
- Prepare a talk. (Al Fox Carraway says she does this just because and I think it's brilliant!)
- Blog about a gospel topic! (i.e. this post! I should mention I don't make any $ at all whatsoever, so this is not a job or working for me. ;)
- Meditate
- Visiting the ill. (Make a get well soon kit and gift it.)
- Sleeping (yes I said it, TAKE A NAP!)
- Take a popular board game and turn it into gospel themed game.
- Play a gospel themed board game!
- Use your phone & make a movie from a scripture story or church magazine story and watch it together while eating popcorn.
- Do indexing
- Help someone learn FamilySearch.org
- Heart attack someone's door. Idea here.
- Decorate a door for a birthday Ideas here.
- Walk around temple grounds.
- Record The Testimony of the Witnesses in your own voice.
- Record The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith in your own voice.
- Share mission stories (our kids love to hear their dad tell them stories, the hubs does have some pretty awesome ones too!)
- Learn to play a Hymn on the Piano or any instrument of your choice.
- Read your journal entries of the past.
- Go for a drive up the mountains and listen to Bro. Dr. Hank Smith CDs
- Pay Tithing
- Introduce yourself to 1 new person or family in the ward.
- Write your testimony on a copy of The Book of Mormon and pray to know who to give it to.
- Read your ward Newsletter
- Update your pic/info on your LDS.org account. You can do this through your Ward Tools App or through LDS.org.
- Review ward/stake calendar for upcoming activities. (Could also be part of your family council # 18).
- Attend a fireside!
- Go through training materials and resources for your callings.
- Bring a friend to church.
- Make flash cards of everyone in your ward, using the LDS.org Ward Directory and learn their names.
- Read your class lessons.
- Learn how to lead music.
- Memorize a scripture.
- Read a Gospel Book together. So many to choose from!
- Have a scripture chase with real scriptures. (My 7yr old thinks this is cool!)
- Make conference quote cards and put them in a jar.
- Make dinner together. Each person has an assignment.
- Write a thank you note to the Bishop.
- Invite the Missionaries for dinner!
- Play Thankful ball. You have the ball and say something your thankful for and then try and get it into the hoop, then the next person goes. We used an indoor hoop on Sundays or for FHE we would do this on the outside hoop.
- Go out of your way to give 3 people a hug.
- Take Baptism pics for free, as a service! It was actually super fun.
- Make a plan to save for your mission/kid's mission.
- Get your handouts ready for the following Sunday for your class.
- Plan your lessons for Cub Scouting/Scouting.
- Take the online training courses for your CubScouting or Scouting Callings.
- Create a temple wall. Hang several favorite pictures of temples on one wall.
- Make a Temple Map of all the temples, use different colors to mark ones you've visited. Like this map but in person.
- Temple Flash Cards (memorizing which temples are which)
- Make a list of 25 things you love about your family.
- Pick a Mormon Ad from the New Era Magazine and post it up somewhere.
- Pin several ideas for FHE on Pinterest. List of FHE ideas here
- Prepare an FHE Lesson
- Watch Random Acts TV
- Make a treasure map and use a compass as the Liahona and use the scriptures as the clues.
- Invite people over to make S'mores.
- Create a gratitude journal!
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| My son and the little wooden boys he painted for our Can do Can. He wrote ideas on each of them, we came up with ideas together. |
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| a Gospel Meme I made and shared on Social Media. |
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| Mt. Timpanogos Temple |
Pick one, pick several, just pick those things you know will bring you closer to your Savior & your family. Don't worry about the haters, it's only about what Christ thinks of you & what you are doing on #HisDay.
