How to not break the Sabbath.

I have just returned from a weekend away with half of my sister-in-laws and some of their cousins.  I have many women floating around in my life now, and so when a crafty-quilting-getaway weekend was proposed, I decided to take the chance of getting to know these women better.  And watch them be all crafty-quilty-like.

Whenever travelling, I like to try my best to keep the Sabbath day holy.  It should always be a reverent day, set apart from the rest, no matter where we are.  I have travelled a lot - both with family and by myself - and I always think the following when compiling my ‘What to Pack’ list:  

• Where will I be on the Sundays I’m away, and is there a chapel close by?
  I always use lds.org to look up and print the meeting times and location details
• What can I take with me (whether physically attend church or not) to keep the Sabbath day holy?

For this particular weekend getaway, knowing that attending church wasn’t an option, I chose to pack my scriptures and study journal.

And so we sat in the sun, next to ducks and running water, and read our scriptures for a while.  I felt happier, knowing that I had still remembered the Sabbath.


I feel it is so important to remember the Sabbath Day.  It needs to be set apart from the rest. 

All of us have a birthday.  It’s a day for us to eat cake.  To be remembered.  It’s your day.  Simply put, that is what the Sabbath day is – it is Heavenly Father’s day, and so on that day we treat it differently to other days of the week.

There’s a story about Eli Herring, an offensive lineman at BYU, in the October 1997 New Era magazine.  Eli was a very big guy - according to John Bytheway, he looked “like a major appliance with legs”.  And everyone was sure he would be picked in the first round in the NFL draft. But as the time approached, Eli announced he didn’t want to enter the draft.  The media didn’t understand that decision at all.  Eli explained to the media it was because the games were on a Sunday, and he didn’t want to play on Sundays.

The media still didn’t get it.

“Now I have to tell you, I know some people personally, professional athletes, that play on Sunday” said Bytheway in this great clip.

“They have made that decision.  They have been prayerful about it, fasted about it I’m sure.  My point is not that some people have to work on Sunday, some do.  My point is what Eli Herring’s father said.  … ‘Our great-grandfathers called it the Holy Sabbath Day; our grandfathers called it Sabbath; our fathers called it Sunday; and now we just call it the weekend.’”

Where is it with me? 
Is it Holy Sabbath, the Sabbath, Sunday, or is it just kinda the weekend?