We Delight on Sunday

What do you do on the Sunday? Maybe the better question is, what do you not do on Sunday?

Growing up, I heard a lot of ways people spent the last day of their weekend. Some people could do anything as long as they wore their Sunday best. Others went to church and then went on with their lives as usual. Some believed they shouldn't work on Sunday, so they'd go out to eat and tip their servers well as a thank you for allowing them to observe the Sabbath.

Remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy is the fourth commandment on the stone tablets Moses brought down to the Jews after the mass Exodus from Egypt. Determining how to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy can be difficult. Ancient Jews had dozens of laws to help them observe the Sabbath as a special day. Now, many Orthodox Jews must figure out how to keep their faith in the modern world.

I don’t know that the Jewish examples were perfect, however, because Jesus Christ’s apostles got into trouble for picking corn on the Sabbath (Luke 6). Christ was also criticized for healing people on the Sabbath.

I’ve pondered on this frequently: what does it mean to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy? It doesn’t mean refraining from work or avoiding worldliness. In my family of origin, Sunday traditions usually involved church attendance and then letting Mom nap before she prepared a large family meal. Friends of mine might get home from church, change, and then go for a hike or a picnic to make the most of our precious Alaskan summer days.

What I’ve come to realize is that the Sabbath observance is not one-size-fits-all. In April 2015, President Russell M. Nelson, the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was “intrigued by the words of Isaiah who called the Sabbath ‘a delight’.” While President Nelson continued to describe how he’d found the Sabbath to be a delight, I still wondered what that meant for me. Did it mean I could take my kids to get donuts after church or go for a long drive to the peninsula?

Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights helped me clarify my thoughts. Ross Gay suggests that “a delight means of the light, so all [he] can think is that a delight is something that comes in the darkness and brings a little light and chases the darkness away.”

For the first time, the Sabbath being a delight made sense. Like all things, it came back to a relationship with Christ. The Sabbath wasn’t meant to be a time to worry excessively about the dos and don’ts, but to put the worries aside and focus on the light. We know that Christ is the Light. And if the Sabbath is a time to break through the darkness and let a little light in, then it’s a time to reflect and build a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ.

If going out in nature, enjoying time with the family, or studying the scriptures bring you closer to Christ, those are valid ways to keep the Sabbath holy.

As I reflected on all of this, like the satisfying click of a Lego piece, everything fit neatly into place. President Nelson wasn’t trying to reinforce the long list of cans and can’ts, rather, he wanted us to remember what Jesus said.

“‘The sabbath was made for man, and not man made for the sabbath.’… [Jesus] wanted us to understand that the Sabbath was His gift to us, granting real respite form the rigors of daily life and an opportunity for spiritual and physical renewal.”

The Sabbath is a day to look forward to. It’s a day to break from the monotony of life and come closer to the Lord.

Having a list of rules may not bring you closer to the Savior if you’re constantly stressing about what you should or shouldn’t do. If you’re wracked with guilt over picking up milk for your kids because you forgot the night before, you won’t enjoy time with your family. If you’re stressed about doing everything wrong or breaking a rule, you could miss out on the feelings of peace and spiritual renewal promised to you.

We should look at Sunday as a delight, a treat at the end of the week, and an opportunity for rejuvenation for the next. The Sabbath is a delight that chases away some of the darkness of our regular turmoil as we build stronger relationships and connections with Jesus Christ. After all, what is the Lord if he's not our Light?

Ami Reece is a writer who is putting the finishing touches on her debut novel. She manages a fledgling blog, Momisms, that reminds moms that motherhood is about practice, not perfection. She lives in the confusing place between Wasilla and Palmer with her husband and three children. She’s a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.