The Sabbath

Mosiah 13:18

"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 they maid-servant, nor they cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;"

In my old[er] age I have come to appreciate the sabbath day. It really is a day to relax, reflect, enjoy the company of my family, and draw closer to the Lord. There are plenty of other days that I can spend working, watching sports, participating in recreational activities, and so forth. The Lord made our bodies to need a period of rejuvination, and sleep is not enough. That seventh day of the week rejuvinates more than just the body, but also the soul and the spirit. Not to mention it qualifies you for the blessings that the Lord gives you for obeying his commandments. 

"There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated- And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

So, is there any point in your life that you have said to yourself "I don't feel like being blessed today, I don't need the Lord's blessings to help me with this."  Is that not what we're doing when we intentionally disobey the Lord? We're telling him that we don't want or need his help, because when we disobey him, we are denying ourselves the opportunity of accepting his blessings. Is that not a form of pride? If the blessings we receive are only given to us by obeying the laws of God, and we receive specific blessings by obeying specific laws, then it stands for reason that if we repeatedly disobey one certain law of the gospel, that we will repeatedly not receive certain blessings no matter how hard we pray and ask for them. 

That may be all fine and dandy if you don't like receiving blessings. Things like obeying the law of tithing and it saving us from burning at the last days, you know, small stuff like that. Or that if we forgive other people their trespasses against us, we will receive the same from the Lord. It follows closely along the lines of something called a "principle with a promise." The principle is that we should obey the commandments and the laws of the gospel. The promise is that he will bless us. That reminds me of a scripture in Mosiah, quoting King Benjamin:

"And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?"

He immediately blesses us. Also, that scripture doesn't say "he blesses you if he feels like it." No, he keeps his end of the bargain, always. That is how much he loves us and how forgiving he is of his children. How can we not trust in him? How can we know what he asks of us, and what he promises us if we simply obey and trust him, and then turn around and disobey him? How can we reject his blessings? How blessed would our lives be if we learned to tune into the spirit and let him guide our every thought, deed, and action? If we remembered him in all things that we do, and in every decision we make, small and large?

And that brings me back to the subject I first mentioned: The Sabbath Day. How is it that the general Christian world can read Luke 23:56 (And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.") as well as the other myriad of scriptures on the topic, and still feel justified in working on Sundays? Is that really the best way we have of taking advantage of the one day per week that the Lord has asked us to set aside for spiritual and physical rejuvination? And to carry it one step further, is one day out of our week too much for the Lord to ask? I mean, after all, he is only our Father, the dude who created us, the one that blesses us, the one that loves us more than anyone else, and so forth. I suppose I can give him at LEAST: 1/10th of my earnings, 1 of my 7 days in a week, a daily feast from his scriptures, and so forth. I don't think that is too much to ask in return for, you know, my existence, my free agency, the countless blessings I have received in life, and so forth. 

So when Sunday rolls around on the calendar again, take some time to thank the Lord for everything you have (literally, seriously, try writing down everything that you have been blessed with in life, it will amaze you), and rest from your normal weekly routine. If you have a job that forces you to work on Sundays, pray about that job and how important that specific job is to you in your life versus some other alternatives you may have. Even jobs that require you to work from home... is that really honoring the sabbath day? And if it's not, is that act worth denying yourself the blessings of keeping the sabbath day holy? Is any measure of disobedience worth denying ourselves the blessings of our Father?