Announcements:
The ward will be holding another 40 day fast beginning September 4. This is an opportunity for us to work together as a ward family, asking Heavenly Father to help us with the missionary effort in our ward area. How does it work? Each family/household signs up for a day to fast, and the entire ward prays during the 40 days for missionary experiences and success. It's that simple! For more info, contact Bro. Stinchfield of the fulltime elders.
There will be a pool party this Thursday at Pauline Dodge's home from 2:30 - 3:30.
We have a youth temple trip on August 21. If you have family names that need baptisms, get them to a youth organization leader.
9/8/12: Steven Dayley memorial bike ride. They will be raising funds to help support the SW Washington Free Clinic where Steve received care when he was diagnosed with cancer.If you can help with bake goods, please get them to Leslie Bergshoeff on the 7th. www.freeclinics.org
Humanitarian needs: We are collecting school supplies for needy children in our area. If you can help (no generic brand crayons, please), you can get them to Sarah Grembowski or Gloria Bachelor.
Missionary Moment: Heather Schroeder had an opportunity to be out with her neighbor and they were in the area of the Portland Temple. She asked heif she would like to go to see the Temple, and so off they went. Heather had an opportunity to explain what temples were for, and they went into the new Portland Temple Visitor's Center. The missionary sisters were able to explain about all of the temples and share the church's website with individual member testimonies.
LESSON: OFFER UP THY SACRAMENTS UPON MY HOLY DAY. Leslie Bergshoeff presented a wonderful lesson about keeping the sabbath day holy, and what that means.
We discussed the many reasons for keeping the sabbath holy, including the fact that it is a commandment. One of the comments that stuck in my mind was that it is a commandment for all mankind to keep the sabbath holy, not just Christians. President George Albert Smith said that "... keeping the sabbath is not a burden but a blessing." He went on to ask: "What would it accomplish for the world if all the children of our Heavenly Father—and we are all his children—would respect his desire that the Sabbath should be a day of worship. There is no way of estimating what a beneficial change might be wrought, not only in our own nation, but in all nations of the world if we honored the Sabbath Day and kept it holy... I am persuaded that much of the sorrow and distress that is afflicting and will continue to afflict mankind is traceable to the fact that they have ignored his admonition to keep the Sabbath day holy."
Members of the church were then admonished: "I say to you that if the members of the Church, knowing better, persist in desecrating the Sabbath day in the pursuit of worldly pleasures, they will lose their faith; and the Spirit of our Heavenly Father will withdraw from them."
HOW CAN WE MAKE THE SABBATH MORE REVERENT? One of the ways that we can make the sabbath a more reverent experience is to remember that the chapel is sacred, and we should enter it prepared to be reverent the entire time we are inside. We should endeavor to take care of visiting and church business in the hallways so that the chapel remains quiet, and the ward members can meditate and prepare for participating in the sacrament ordinance. We discussed leaving food and other snack items at home, always dressing appropriately when we are going to be in the chapel for any purpose, and speaking with hushed voices when we need to do so. I was thinking of the primary song we all learned:
"Our chapel is a sacred place, we enter quietly. Dear Father, while we sing and pray, our thoughts will be of thee."
We also talked about keeping the sabbath day holy the of the day - this is often the more difficult task. Bonnie Pace shared a family tradition that I thought was fantastic. They met as a family and talked about what activities were appropriate for the sabbath. Each Sunday, they all accomplished five things: 1) Scripture Study, 2) Work on a talent, 3)
write a letter, 4) perform acts of service, and 5) write in their journal. I really love this idea - this is something that families of any make up or age can do!
HOW CAN WE MAKE THE SABBATH MORE MEANINGFUL?
We can start the day by asking Heavenly Father to prepare us to hear what is most important for us to receive in church that day, and to prepare us to take the sacrament.
We can choose to fast on Sunday with a purpose in mind, and attend our meetings fasting.
We can listen to the words of the sacrament ordinances carefully, remembering that as we participate in the sacrament service, we are literally renewing our baptismal covenants.
After church today I had a discussion with a new member of the church about what it means to keep the sabbath day holy. She has observed so many people who observe the sabbath in different ways, and wondered what the rules were.
I had to think about that for a bit. I remember how we used to observe the sabbath when I was a very young child, and how that changed over the years as my parents matured in the gospel. We decided that appropriate activities on the sabbath really centered around bringing the spirit into our lives and homes, and keeping the world out for the day. If we can remember to use that as our gauge, we should all be able to know what is best.
No comments:
Post a Comment