Making Our Family’s
Sabbath a Delight
What do we want our families to get from their Sabbath
Day? Peace from the world, renewed
fortification and determination to do what is right for their week ahead, as well as stronger family bonds. How can we accomplish these things and have a delightful Sabbath Day?
The Lord has commanded us to rest on His hallowed day.
What does that look like for a family with kids? Perhaps a peaceful day would be a great
rest. How do we make our Sabbath Day a
delight for all, and still restful? Here
are some ideas that families have tried.
Maybe one or two of them will fit your family.
1. Physical Prep for
Sunday.
“Saturday is a special day..so we can be ready for Sunday.” (#196 Children's Songbook) It’s a wonderful concept, to get ready for a Sabbath
day. It takes work especially for us
moms, but the extra effort is worth it!
Rose’s plan was to check everyone’s Sunday clothes on
Saturday night. She would then have
enough time to find the missing socks, slips, ties, belts, or bows. As the kids grew, her older ones started
doing their own laundry, but her two youngest were not ready to take care of
their own clothes yet. These were the
clothes that were hardest to find! So Rose had both boys leave all their Sunday
things on her bathroom chair after changing out of them Sunday night. She then washed their Sunday pants and shirts
with her laundry, and hung them where they belonged. She put the ties on a tie hanger in her closet
and the belts on a hook. This technique
saved a lot of exasperation! The Sunday
things couldn’t get lost in a child’s room! And gradually, these two learned to wash and
hang up their own Sunday things like their older siblings.
For years, the Swansons gave their kids Saturday work every
week. If their weekday chore was to
vacuum one room during the week, then on Saturday that child vacuumed all three
front rooms of their house. If a child’s
chore was to take out two garbages every day, on Saturday, that child took out
all of the garbages and washed out the garbage container with a hose. The kids were required to clean their rooms
and take care of their clothes as well. The
whole family pitched in to clean up the toys or the back porch or do the yard work.
Some weeks, for a change, Sallie had one child take charge of a room, giving
out all the assignments for cleaning that room.
The family moved through the house with a different child taking charge
in each room.
Sallie taught them
they needed to do extra on Saturday to be ready for Sunday. “Does this house look like Sunday yet?” Sallie
would ask them. Sometimes, she would
announce, “Bedroom show at 6:00!” and the kids knew that Dad would be coming
through and seeing how clean their bedrooms were (with praise and suggestions
too), in time for Sunday!
At one point, Sallie realized that her kids didn't see her getting ready for Sunday! She would do much of her cleaning on the weekdays when they were at school, and she would often spend much of her Saturday getting errands run! Deciding that the children needed to see her example better, she decided to mop her floors on Saturdays--a big effort that would show her kids she too was getting the house ready for Sunday!
Anne decided that she didn’t want to spend so much time
worrying about a complex Sunday dinner.
For her family, she decided on a simple Sunday meal and a more fancy one
for Monday night, Family Night. Julia
fixed waffles on Sunday as a good simple dinner. Raeleen preferred homemade pizza each week—simple
for her and loved by all. Melinda had
boys who liked to cook, so they all helped fix the Sunday meal together, and
shared it with extended family or friends.
2. Make it a Different
day. Mark likes to tell the kids to make
Sunday a different day from the rest of the week. We wear different clothes, and we play
different music than other days. “Look
like it’s Sunday” we tell our kids, coaxing them out of their jammies and into polo
shirts or skirts, their “after church clothes” that are different from the rest
of the week. One of our computer playlists
is full of inspirational music especially for playing on Sunday. It sets the tone for a peaceful day. Different songs than the rest of the week for
a different, special day.
The Tanners had been trying to get their kids to do Sunday
things for years, such as write in journals, visit the sick, do family history,
and write the missionaries. But after
the new emphasis on Keeping the Sabbath day holy, Tim and Cheryl tried a new
approach. They gathered their kids one
Family Council and asked them, “What do we want to accomplish on Sunday?” They all made a list of the good that could
come from keeping Sunday holy, such as
finding answers to prayers and solutions to problems, growing closer to the
Lord, and storing up peace for the week ahead. (See https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/the-sabbath-is-a-delight?lang=eng
) “How can we help that to happen?” they
then asked, and made a second list of what things they could do on Sunday for
these good spiritual outcomes. The kids
came up with things for their list, which were the very things Tim and Cheryl
had been trying to get them to do all this time! But since the kids thought of it, they were
on board. They whole family began to
have much better Sundays!
3. Devotionals
My Favorite Idea:
Sometimes it’s hard to get teenagers up after a late night,
for Sunday devotional or early church! When I had a house full of teenagers who
wanted to sleep in, a friend told me how she used her teen’s favorite food as a
motivation. So I decided that we’d have
a special breakfast on Sunday mornings:
everybody’s favorite Peach Crisp.
(My recipe is not the dessert kind, it’s more hearty and healthy, but
everyone loves it.) I only make it on
Sunday mornings, and it is a great incentive to get out of bed! They come to the table to eat, and we sing
and read and pray together first! (Or we
do the devotional while they are eating, if needed for a time crunch! It’s amazing how well they listen when their
mouths are full!)
What about Fast Sundays?
Well, on that day, we all meet in the Family room instead of the Kitchen
table. We ask them to come in to start
our fast together, and they come, knowing they might be able to go back to bed
afterward! We gather to talk over who
needs our prayers that week, in order to include those people in our fasting
and prayers. That and a short
devotional, and our teens are free to go back to bed if they don’t have other
Sunday duties.
Sundays are a good day for a different devotional than the
rest of the week. The Martins use Conference
talks on Sundays, studying one talk every week.The Doyles decided to read Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage with their children on
Sundays, after reading scriptures during the week. It took several years to get through the
entire book, but they had some wonderful discussion about the Savior each week
on His day. The Gardners read a sentence of the Family Proclamation
every Sunday, memorizing it and discussing that thought in detail. It was eye-opening to take apart that
document, to study the inspired words from Prophets, and to compare it with
what was happening in our day. Going
over the words many times made them truly theirs, the foundation of their
beliefs.
4. Family
Togetherness
Worshiping together is a perfect way to keep the
Sabbath. Attending church is the ideal
way to refill our lives with the Spirit, while lifting and building up those
around us. What an invaluable lesson we
teach our children by simply going each week, even if we still struggle to get
everyone ready and there! The delight comes later-- when our children
grow up with lives of faithfulness and follow the tradition of being
church-goers!
After church, Young Colby loved it when his Mom set up “Sunday
Stations” on Sunday. At each location,
ie on the kitchen table, in the Family room, or at the counter, Mom set up a
station (Colby’s word). At one, there
might be materials to write letters, at another a Sunday card game, at another a
pile of church magazines, and at another the family’s journals. One station might be at the computer for Mormon Messages or friend.lds.org. Colby particularly liked the time spent doing
these things together—and especially, the refreshments (granola bars) that Mom
put in the middle of the kitchen table that he was allowed to eat after he had
written a paragraph or drawn a picture in his journal.
Sunday is a great time to be with family! Many are the happy memories spent with
grandparents or aunts, uncles, and cousins on a Sunday evening. Visiting a Grandparent in their home can
become a choice memory for life. I remember
singing for my own Great-Grandmother who was going on 98 years old!
The Frank family was spread out across the country, so they
started a different tradition. Each
Sunday morning, Brother Frank sent out a text message to the kids, “Shabbat
Shalom” and a paragraph or two about his week with a picture or two. He encouraged each family to send the same
back to him and little by little the kids started sending more words and
pictures for this Family newsletter.
Brother Frank told them that at the end of the year, he would compile it
all and put it together in a book!
The Jorgensons are also spread out, so they plan a Family
Chat once a month. One family member sets
up a time on a Fourth Sunday that works for all, and then reminds everyone to
join the chat. It is so fun to see
everyone as well as catch up on the news of the past month.
Kitty discovered an excellent service she could do for her
family through Family History photos.
She had one of her computer savvy kids show her how to upload pictures
on Family Search, and she wrote it down step by step. Then, she—the only one
left in the family who knew the names and dates of ancestors on some of those
old photos—could upload them and caption them so that all could enjoy the old
photos!
5. Peace
The Meyers like to take a walk when the weather’s nice on a
Sunday afternoon. They can notice and
talk about the beautiful things they see. They can say hello to the neighbors. And they can just enjoy being together and
unhurried.
Taking a nap is a favorite of the teenagers in the Jensen
home. The kids stay so busy all week and
Sunday is a day when they set aside homework and household projects, money issues
and deadlines. Resting up rejuvenates
them for the week ahead.
Singing hymns at home is important to the
Christiansons. They pick one hymn to
sing for an entire month. Grandmother
gave each child his own hymn book for Christmas, so they can each open up to
the new song. The hymn not only brings
the spirit to their home during a devotional, but at other times, it is a go-to
for when bad thoughts or bad lyrics from other songs surround them.
Eliza loves it when Mom and Dad invite her to climb on their
bed and have a heart to heart talk on a Sunday evening. They keep it positive, telling her over and
over how much they love her, that they’re glad Heavenly Father sent her to their
home, and that she is a great person. She
feels so good when they spell out to her some of the things they admire in her,
or her accomplishments that make them so proud.
Mostly, she loves feeling secure and at peace with herself at the end of
a peaceful Sabbath day.
Labels: a delight; Families--Sunday, Children--Sabbath Day