The Ingredients of a Testimony

 

We went to church today, and we actually got to sing the hymns together as a congregation for the first time in a year!  It was a sweet surprise, but today I want to talk about a different sweet thing that happened during our season of at-home church.

The sweet thing was that we got to hear my girls' testimonies quite often and it filled our home with the Holy Ghost.

I recently stumbled on the testimony that my daughter Autumn gave one Sunday as she had written notes to help her say it the way she wanted to.  Here it is:

"Testimonies are like baking cookies.  We practice baking them for our whole lives until they are perfect.

We start our testimonies by gathering all of the ingredients, like going to church and getting baptized.  Then we start mixing the ingredients together, which is like reading scriptures daily and learning in church every Sunday.  And then we put it in the oven and your testimony rises and gets stronger, because you are obeying the commandments and getting personal revelation.  When you are ready, you will have a spiritual and a strong testimony.

And when they are done cooling, you can share them with your friends, so they can have the same experience that you had.  But if you put the wrong ingredients in your cookies, they won't turn out as the cookies you wanted to make...

I know that as we do the right things and be like our Heavenly Father, we will have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, and we can live with God again.  I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I was really touched by the testimony of our resident baker.  I know that the Lord sent us to earth to learn spiritual lessons in a physical world. Autumn's testimony is just one example of that!

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Standing by the witnesses we have already received

I was just perusing the February 2020 Ensign and these dates struck me.  

It was three years after the First Vision until Joseph Smith had another heavenly visitor.  Three years for him to stand alone with his testimony before getting another visit. 

Then it was four years after that until he could actually aquire the plates, and ten whole years from the first vision until the publication of the Book of Mormon and the organization of the Church.  

What strikes me is that we often have to stand by our testimonies holding on to the witness we have been given, standing in the face of doubts and opposition before further witnesses come or before anything physical comes of our faith. 

Are we willing to stand by the witnesses we already have today as we wait for more assurances to come in our personal lives? 

Joseph Smith continues to be a humble example to me. 

Also I love the Palmyra Temple and the experiences I have had there!

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Careful vs. Casual by Becky Craven

Becky Craven's talk from General Conference was one of those talks that just speaks profound truth in such a simple and straightforward way that it sticks with you well after Conference is over.

And you can almost hear nothing else.  "Careful vs. Casual" says it all.  All that I hope for them.  Yes, I want them to be brave and courageous, but when it comes to making choices about living the gospel, I want them to do so carefully.  Not timidly, but with great care.

I need to go listen to her talk about five million more times right now, but I just wanted to share this image that I created to hang on my wall.

While talking with my good friend Melissa during our General Conference Book Club, I just felt inspired to make sure that the walls of my home were working for me in getting the messages that I want into my children's heads and heart!

So, after listening to this talk again, I latched on to this quick phrase she used: "As covenant people, we are not meant to blend in with the world." 

This is just another way of saying, 'you were born to stand out', which is what I expect my children to do, perhaps, in these last days, even among their church peers.  They need to get comfortable with this and learn to love this, even though it will sometimes be hard.  They will never be alone when they're on the covenant path.

I'm having this image printed in poster size.  If you're interested in accessing it, shoot me an email, and I'll send you the link for printing it in poster size. (Printing was $6 and free shipping!)

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Seek, Feel, Act, Know

Is there a formula that leads to testimony? 

I've been thinking a lot about this as I prepared for my talk on the topic of "receiving in faith." 

I believe there is a basic pathway. 

First we seek for truth, then we feel it is right, then we must act in faith on that principle, and THEN comes the witness of that truth, the evidence or the testimony. 

Many people make the mistake of thinking that they need to know first, but in my experience knowing and understanding fully comes last. 

It comes after seeking, feeling, and acting in faith...acting being the key. Another mistake we can sometimes make when trying to build a testimony is trying to understand things only academically or logically and not giving room for our feelings or spiritual promptings to teach us.   Other ways we trip up is placing caveats or time limits on the step of "act in faith".

What do you guys think? Is my theory correct? Have you experienced this yourself? 

It's definitely been taught to us in scripture and by living prophets, but how diligently do we put this into practice? 

I'm going to try harder to actively do this in my life and to teach my children to do this for themselves! 

I hope you're having a great day! 

And no I didn't get to give my talk because we got snowed it but we talked about it on Sunday for #ComeFollowMe.

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Early to bed, Early to Rise

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man (or Mom) healthy, wealthy, and wise. 

I have always known this is true but in recent years have struggled to get up early enough to be really at my best in the early morning. 

Today I planned to wake up at 5am but the Spirit woke me up at 4:45, so I got up, got dressed, studied, journaled and was ready and alert for scripture study with my husband and son at 6am, then scripture study with the three girls at 7:30am with breakfast, packing lunches, and getting clothes laid out/kids dressed in between. 

We had a very nice time together talking about and drawing our testimonies as plants (inspired by the Friend this month!), and as I watched the girls dance their way to the bus stop taking their lovely lights with them I might have cried a little. 

What a blessing they are and how much work it is to maintain a family, and yet that hard work and sacrifice is what makes them precious to us. 

I'm grateful for this "new" plan which, if we let it will transform both how our days look and how we are. #ComeFollowMe.

I normally have a few different Come Follow Me Lessons each day depending on who is awake and which ages are around to teach. I love that it's so easy to adapt lessons to all ages.  This is the way I adapted our lesson on testimony for my 2 and 1 year olds.  I started with singing a Primary song and I was amazed at how excited they both got at hearing me sing to them.  They were wide awake and attentive and smiling at me to see what I would do next!  I grabbed a poinsettia and Val and I talked about what it takes for us to help the plant grow.  I invited him to water the plant while we talked.

At one point, he said, "Jesus will come back one day?" Following his lead, I said yes, "would you like to see a picture of Jesus?"  We looked at this picture of the Savior in Come Follow Me manual and he immediately started pointing out Christ's facial features (eyes, nose, ears, lips, etc.) and point to his own.  This was so sweet and made it easy to talk about and help my son relate to His Savior.

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To Know, Know, Know Him...

We're getting lots of snow over here in Western Pennsylvania, so part of my efforts to cultivate a feeling of #hygge today was to watch the snowfall, while holding my baby, and listening to the announcement that President Nelson has been ordained and set apart as the new prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I remember when President Hinckley passed, I was so sad and wondered how different things would be without this vibrant leader.  I remember watching President Monson talking at a similar media event announcing that he had taken the mantel and thinking, ok, but he's no President Hinckley.

You see, I didn't KNOW President Monson, like I had come to know President Hinckley, so my acceptance of him at first was more obligatory than out of truly knowing and loving him as God's chosen leader...at least not right away.

Not long after he became prophet, however, I was asked to teach a Relief Society lesson about the first talk President Monson gave in General Conference after becoming the prophet called "Looking Back and Moving Forward."

Preparing for this lesson gave me a chance to learn about President Monson and to really consider him for the first time. I realized that his talk was something of an inaugural address in which he laid out a roadmap for what the things he felt impressed to touch on often in his ministry as president and prophet of the church.  

As I studied his talk in preparation to teach it to my fellow ward sisters, I offered a sincere prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me to know that President Monson was his chosen leader of the church at this time.  Of course, we know how leaders are chosen by the Lord way in advance, but I wanted that witness for myself.  And I got it.

As I carefully considered his teachings in a purposeful way, the spirit came over me in a strong but brief moment and in that moment I suddenly knew that President Monson was God's chosen servant, that I could trust him, and that I wouldn't go wrong by following his counsel.  He was the one.

I am so glad that I took that time to ask God to tell me who this man really was, because over his years as prophet I have gained so much wisdom and strength by studying and living by his teachings in my life.  

And our family has gained so much in studying the words of all of the Apostles and general authorities, so much so that this time around I already know President Nelson and what he teaches.  I already have a love for him, because I have already been blessed by following his counsel.  I know he is the one God wants to lead the church right now.  However, I will review what he has already said and I will encourage my children to pray for their own witness of this man and to pray FOR him as he takes on this huge responsibility for which he has been preparin his entire life.

For now, I'm going to share here some of my favorite lessons we've done as a family based on the General Conference teachings of President Nelson in recent years.  I plan on reviewing them with my children at our next Family Home Evening. (Read them by clicking on the links below...)

Let Your Faith Show - Apr 2014

Sustaining the Prophets - Oct 2014

Catch the Wave of Missionary Work - Apr 2013

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The Covenants We Make

Whew!  It's been quite a week.  I hope you all enjoyed your Turkey Day.  Our week was all about making and keeping sacred covenants.  From renewing our temple recommends to blessing our new baby to seeing our first-born ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, it has been nothing short of a spiritually action-packed week.

I'll start with today and work backwards, I guess.  This was Coy and my first Sunday back at church after his arrival into our family.  Luckily, my Dad was able to join us for Guy's ordination.

He also stayed a while and played with us after church.  It's neat to see my family which 18 months ago looked like a family of mostly girls, suddenly blossom into a family of equal parts women & equal parts future priesthood brethren! :)  It's truly amazing what God can do with our lives in a very short amount of time.

Anyway, I'm happy for Guy.  He advanced from Primary to the Young Men's program and also received his Faith in God award which we've worked on together pretty consistently over the years.

Age 11/12 has been a bit of a trying time for us.  Has anyone else found this to be the case?  I'm so glad Guy now has the structure and principles of the Priesthood to help guide him through this next part of his adolescence, because I was truly running out of ideas.  More and more, I see the need to step back and let the principles that we have taught him rest upon his soul and let him take these next steps as independently as he seems to want.  Some steps in life must be taken alone (although I'm of course always here for when he will eventually need me again! :)  

As for our other children, we're all settling in ok with having a new baby around.  My 19-month old Val loves the baby.  My girls do too.

Scarlett, my ten-year old is so very helpful...beyond helpful, she is my second in command...always willing to jump up and see to every need.  What a blessing she is to me.

The other great event of the week is that we blessed Coy the day after Thanksgiving.  I have to say that although it didn't happen exactly the way I would have had it, what mattered most was that my husband had the power and authority to bless him with the priesthood.  And above all else, these are the things that matter.

 When my mother-in-law came to visit last week, she kept pointing out that I have "two families" now, my older children (ages 12, 10, 9) and my younger children (ages 5, 19 months, and newborn).  While I tend to not want to see it that way, in a way her point is valid.  One group is advancing to spiritual and personal independence, while the other is almost completely dependent on me for everything.  One group has been instructed well and taught over years of family home evenings, scripture study, made covenants, etc and must now put what they've been taught into practice, while with the other group, we are basically starting over from scratch!

The great promise in all of this is that we have all of these varied personalities, experiences, and testimonies now in our family to help each other along the path from oldest to youngest.  It will be very interesting to see how the next chapter of our parenting and family journey unfolds!  Wish us luck...we'll need it!!! :)

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Recapturing testimony day by day

Faith and testimony is built day by day.  What are you doing each day to make sure your testimony stays vibrant?  I have been asking myself that a lot lately.

"...once obtained, a testimony needs to be kept vital and alive through continued obedience to the commandments of God and through daily prayer and scripture study."

Hopefully, you all picked up on this quote from President Monson, which I included in my previous post.  It applies to all of us.

Another one I love, from President Lee this time, is as follows (and I take this from the Harold B Lee Manual:

What can we do to strengthen our testimonies?

[The Master said to Peter,] “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31–32). Now, mind you, He is saying that to the chiefest of the Twelve. I am praying for you; now go out and get converted, and when you get converted, then go strengthen your brother. It means [we can become] unconverted just as well as we can become converted."

(And here comes the quote that I really like...) 

"Testimony is as elusive as a moonbeam; it’s as fragile as an orchid; you have to recapture it every morning of your life. You have to hold on by study, and by faith, and by prayer. If you allow yourself to be angry, if you allow yourself to get into the wrong kind of company, you listen to the wrong kind of stories, you are studying the wrong kind of subjects, you are engaging in sinful practices, there is nothing that will be more deadening as to take away the Spirit of the Lord from you until it will be as though you had walked from a lighted room when you go out of this building, as though you had gone out into a darkness.¹⁷

That which you possess today in testimony will not be yours tomorrow unless you do something about it. Your testimony is either going to increase or it is going to diminish, depending on you. Will you remember your responsibility, then? The Lord said, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17).¹⁸

These are just some thoughts I have swirling around in my head today...the importance of always building and not becoming complacent about our testimonies.

I've been taking actions lately, small, baby steps, actually, to be a better builder of my own testimony.

One thing I started doing this week is taking about 10 minutes a day to index in the morning.  I figure it is just one more positive thing I can be doing with my limited time to turn my thoughts to good things, to build my testimony, and to bring more of the spirit into my day.

Since I was trying to find the easiest, quickest indexing projects, I ended up indexing records (muster rolls) of people who served in the American Revolutionary War, which I found really exciting.  Normally, in the past the people I have indexed were really strangers to me, but it seemed different somehow to connect with people who served such an important roll in our country's history.

Anyway, just another idea of ways we can all take an active roll in building our testimonies.  Have a great week!

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So Many Twists and Turns

After my previous post, I was really thinking we were on the upswing of this whole moving process and that things would just continue to get better, and maybe even easier.  So, imagine my surprise when I realized Friday morning that my children had been locked out of our apartment for nearly two hours in 20 degree weather, because I didn't realize it was a 2-hour emergency delay at school!!!  

Nothing was normal that morning. We were completely out of our routine, and by the time I was ready to leave for our 8:30am appointment to walk-through our newly framed house, my husband had already allowed the children to run down to the bus stop.  Somehow, I did not receive the text or voicemail that I normally get from the school district notifying me of a delay, so while we were touring our, albeit cold, soon-to-be new house, my kids were cold and alone trying to seek shelter in a carboard box house that they had worked together to build and insulate with packing paper on our patio!!!

When I realized the mishap, I was horrified...horrified!!  If there was a school delay, then where were my kids???  I rushed home, calling the school on my way. I ran down to our apartment, and, upon seeing their cardboard hut adorned with backpacks and schoolbooks, I smiled for just a moment at their ingenuity.  

But they were no where to be seen, so I started calling their names.  They came out of the storage area where they had gone to get warmer, and they were crying with relief that I had finally come home. I was so sad for them and all of us collectively, and it just brought all the sad/moving feelings up to the surface all over again!

I really felt awful and beat myself up about my failure of my poor babies, but as I've stepped back from it, I've realized that I think the Lord had a purpose in allowing this situation to transpire.  He could have stopped it from happening.  He could have warned me, as he has done so many times in the past, but he didn't, and in the process, the children learned many important things.  

They learned to survive on their own, to work together in a scary situation that they had not considered previously.  They shared their mittens with each other. Scarlett shared her lunch with the other siblings. Guy watched over and kept everyone calm and gathered materials to build the shelters as Autumn read books.  They prayed together twice for help and peace. As a result they learned compassion for others, as they now want to give their money to help homeless people! Scarlett shared in her testimony today that she knows that when we pray God won't just leave us alone, He will comfort us: another hard-earned piece of wisdom. 

I am so grateful that they were all safe and no one got frost-bite.  And I'm sure this was a wake-up call for me also to fill in some holes in our emergency plans which we obviously never updated upon moving (such as giving all of the children keys to our new residence, etc.)

Another thing that helped settle my mind about this situation was an experience that happened the day prior.  

I had spoken with a new friend of mine who was pretty devastated that a house they hoped to buy was probably going to fall through because they discovered too many repairs that the seller didn't want to fix.  I felt compassion for her.  Her growing family is getting too large for their current rental, she is about to give birth, they already told their rental property they were moving, and now the house they wanted isn't going to work out.

As I went home that afternoon, this woman's name kept coming to mind.  Even as I baked (for my own enjoyment) her name kept coming up.  So I texted her, finally, and offered to take her daughter so she could get some things done (or nap~!)  She declined.  

I found myself accidentally putting too much sugar in my recipe so I had to double it.  I suddenly had more than enough Easter bread to share, so as soon as it came out of the oven, my daughters and I raced across town to deliver some bread to her family. The promptings were even so specific that I was to give her more bread than I was planning.

It wasn't a big deal, but we instantly felt a good feeling when we left her house!  

In church, she bore testimony today that she knew the Lord loved her and knew her, because he prompted three women in the ward to reach out to her, even with just a text asking to take her daughter, and that she was so grateful that these women followed those promptings.  I knew what she said was true because I had experienced it.  

The Lord does know her name.  I know this because he whispered it to me over and over again until I got the message.  He wanted me (and others) to go show His love for this woman.  

Because I know He knows her name, I know that he knows mine.  And because I witnessed him making things happen for one of His daughters, I know that he could have easily notified me of my mistake missing the two-hour delay...but he didn't.  And it's ok that he didn't.  It's just one of those things that happens.  Sometimes the Lord saves us from mishaps, sometimes he allows us to experience the hard things, because He knows the end from the beginning.  There are reasons we experience hard things.  It doesn't mean He loves us any less because he allows us to go through hard, even heartbreaking things.  

Quite the opposite.  It means that He loves us more.

PS - Here's a little look at the inside of our new house.  Two of my sisters were so kind to call and make sure that I was ok after my incident with the kids. My younger sister knew I was upset, but she still took the opportunity to laugh at the irony that while my kids were taking shelter in a little carboard box, we were touring our new home.  Well, it was freezing there too because there is no power yet, but still!  Funny!  So, here's a look at our sun room. I'm excited about the view and look forward to moving in mid-May.

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Unfreezing Our Frozen Hearts

It's been six weeks since we moved here to Cranberry Township, PA...just outside of Pittsburgh.  Six weeks of being crammed in an apartment.  Six weeks of sickness.  Six weeks of trying to find a new routine and learning the ropes at school.  The children have been missing their friends a lot, so I decided it was time to head home for a quick visit...only I didn't tell them!  It was a total surprise.

Our old hometown Lewisburg, PA has a fun Ice Festival every February, and the kids and I have been going for years.  I wasn't about to miss it.  Turns out it was a great opportunity not only to hug our friends and blow off steam, but also to step back and realize how far we've come in six weeks and how much we've each grown.  My favorite moment was watching Scarlett jump into the arms of her friend who was also totally surprised to see her come for a visit.  (I'll share that video on my Facebook page!)

It was so refreshing.  There is something about being in a familiar place that is very rejuvenating.  It's hard being somewhere where everything, even driving to the grocery store takes a lot of brainwork. It's exhausting.

But being home and knowing that their friends are STILL there for them was good for the children.  And for me.

Lately, Scarlett has been writing uplifting messages and leaving them for us to see.  Yesterday, during church, she stood before the congregation and said, "I know that when I'm going through hard things I can pray to Heavenly Father and he will help me through."  That's something we can all gain a knowledge of as we face our individual challenges, and if it took moving ot learn that then it will have been totally worth it!

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Your Sabbath Day Sign

This past Sunday I was tasked with teaching a lesson in Relief Society on keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

This goes without saying, hopefully, but we've all been hearing a lot about this topic in the last little while.  In our ward alone, we had an RS lesson about it, a Sacrament meeting and 5th Sunday lesson about it...just last week.  (I shared some insights I had about the Sabbath day here.)

So, although I've had a lot of experience exploring this commandment personally (and growing spiritually from observing it!) I was a little perplexed with how and what to teach for this lesson.

After all, I wasn't given an actual lesson, I was coming up with the lesson on my own.  I didn't want to go down the road of giving a detailed description of helpful hints...instead, I wanted to highlight the blessings of keeping the Sabbath day...in other words, I wanted to give people a reason to keep this commandment.  As if the reasons haven't been spelled out for us already.

What follows is sort of an outline and a rough re-telling of how the lesson went. I hope it's helpful to someone out there.

On Saturday night, I went on Facebook and lamented that I wasn't sure how to teach the lesson...You, my friends shared some helpful stories with me, and I used some of that!  So thank you!

I wrestled with it as I studied all night, and rolled around in bed for a bit.  Then at about 4am I woke up with these thoughts about different kinds of signs...so that's how I started my lesson...

I printed off these different kinds of signs:

1. a Facebook like symbol

2. a "closed on Sunday" sign outside of a business

3. a blinker in use on the back of a car

4. a simply/modestly dressed woman

Before the lesson, I passed the pictures out to four sisters and asked them to contemplate the sign they had been given and then to take a few minutes to explain to the class how these signs affect others or how they are perceived by God.

I had the ladies sit in front to make up our panel facing the class.  
They each did a great job.  The first shared a personal experience when she had to decide whether to "like" something on Facebook and how that went and how it affected two people in her family when she did so.  The second talked about the restaurant being closed on Sunday, and we had a good laugh about how good the food was, but certainly they took a hit to their business by closing on Sundays.  The third sister talked about how a blinker indicates what direction you're heading in...also symbolic of our life's direction.  We talked about how sometimes we signal in one direction, but head in another direction and how that affects those who follow behind us.  The fourth sister talked about what sign the modestly dressed woman was exuding about herself and her confident appearance.

It was a fun way to ponder the purpose of the "signs" that we give and to segue into this idea of the sign we choose to give to the Lord through our actions on the Sabbath Day.

We all easily made the connection.

I had one sister read Ezekial 20:12-13...and then a couple more verses.  This is the scripture Elder Nelson quotes in his talk "The Sabbath is a Delight," but if you continue reading the next few verses, it puts the idea of the Sabbath as a sign into context....the context being that the ancient Israelites were not willing to give the right sign.  They were not willing to keep the Sabbath, and as a result, the Lord says, they were not brought into the promised land.  And future generations were kept from entering as well.  This, we know, is not the only reason, but in this chapter it is given as a major reason.  At this point, I had the sister reading come up and hold up a sign I had prepared.  It said, "We do not wish to keep the Law of the Sabbath. - Ancient Israel"  On the flip-side of the sign, it read, "Message received: "We are not ready to enter the promised land and to receive thy blessings."

We talked about how long they roamed and contemplated what kind of sign we in our day are giving to the Lord.  Are we telling him that we are not yet ready to receive the blessings that He has waiting for us?  We might not be ready, and maybe that's ok...but let's not wait 40 years to be ready.  Let's learn to keep the Sabbath day holy now or as soon as we can.

Then I read this quote by Mark E. Peterson:  "No law in all scripture has been more clearly defined than that of the Sabbath.  From the time of Genesis to our own day, there has been no subject spoken of more directly or repeatedly than the Sabbath.

"It is one of the laws most dear to the heart of God.  Yet it is noted far more in its desecration than in its acceptance and proper observance..."

"Our observance or nonobservance of the Sabbath is an unerring measure of our attitude toward the Lord personally and toward his suffering in Gethsemane, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead.  It is a sign of whether we are Christians in very deed, or whether our conversion is so shallow that commemoration of his atoning sacrifice means little or nothing to us."  ("The Sabbath Day," Ensign, May 1975, pp. 47, 49).

I asked if the class thought that the degree to which we keep the Sabbath day holy has any affect on other people.

Then we read from the Bible Dictionary on Sabbath day observance:

"The importance of a sacred day for man to rest from his temporal labors, contemplate the word of the Lord, and assemble for public worship is a major item in a person’s spiritual development. Furthermore, a decay in the national religious life always follows any tendency toward carelessness in the matter of Sabbath observance. The existence of a weekly holy day is a most important safeguard; it leaves a constant reminder to the individual of his need for spiritual sustenance and his duty before God, and serves as a witness to the world that there is such a thing as revealed religion.

The change from observing the last day of the week to the first day of the week is not so important as is the concept and principle of the Sabbath. In either case, the Sabbath was symbolic of the mighty works of God: the creation of the earth, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

We discussed these two themes...

1. that observance of a Sabbath day is a "major item in a person's spiritual development".

2. that the existence of a weekly holy day is a most important safeguard to a nation's religious life.

At this point, there were comments about how strictly the Sabbath was observed in the early days of settling this continent, during the Revolution and such...in contrast to today--a day dubbed Super Bowl Sunday.

Someone brought up that we would do well to remember the brethren's recent advice to "avoid lists" of do's and don't's.  Which I've shared experiences in the past that has confirmed that this is correct, but I wonder how many of us are using this "new" push/direction as a way to excuse doing things we really know we shouldn't on the Sabbath day.  

I asked if this idea of sending a sign to the Lord through our Sabbath observance is a "new" idea or not.  Obviously, it is not, since we just read it out of Exodus.  I stated my opinion that just because we are being asked to not rely on lists for what to do on Sunday...doesn't mean that lists don't/shouldn't exist.  Each of us should be actively going about the spiritual work of making our own personal lists that we choose to live by, regardless of what others might do.  Also the advice to "send a sign" does not mean that we suddenly ignore all that has previously been stated by prophets about keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

Then I played this quote by President Hinckley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zw_fTBhVlU

I encourage you to watch it (it's about 1 minute long).  In this clip, President Hinckley laments that Sunday is "becoming the play day of America..."

He also issues this poignant warning to us as a people, "Our strength for the future, our resolution to grow the church around the world will be weakened if we ignore the Lord in this important matter....We cannot disregard with impunity that which He has said."

I think this was another one of those things about the Sabbath that many of us had not thought about.  Not only does our Sabbath observance affect our spirituality and that of our nation, but it will greatly hinder our efforts to share the gospel if we disregard the things God has said about it.  Ouch.  This whole sharing the gospel thing is a major goal for the saints of Pennsylvania, so this warning hit us right where it hurts!

Of course, if we think about it, the opposite must also be true, if there are blessings we desire, we need to keep the commandments upon which those blessings are predicated.  And we are promised in scripture that the "fullness of the earth" will be ours if we keep the Sabbath Day holy.  So basically...any blessing after which we seek can only be helped by keeping the Lord's day holy.

I wasn't able (as with most lessons) to share all that I had researched and prepared, but I was pleased with the high level of participation by the sisters, and although it was a lesson I had to really work to figure out, I think we covered what the Lord wanted us to realize about His Sabbath Day.  

I did share a few stories which readers shared with me...one about a woman who's children's disabilities keep her family from going to church regularly, but that she has them dress up on Sundays when they can and take the Sacrament as delivered by members of the priesthood in her ward...and that is her personal sign to the Lord. A sign that is just between her and the Lord and her and her children...which most signs are truly meant to be....personal.

I passed out cards and asked the women to write down what message/sign they want to give to the Lord through their Sabbath Day observance and then to write down one thing they will do to send that sign to the Lord.

I ended by sharing one story that I read in the scriptures while preparing for the lesson...a story I won't soon forget.

In Luke 23:55 through 24: 1-9, we read about a group of women who followed after the body of Christ to make sure it was properly prepared for burial/entombment after his death.  They prepared spices to use on his body, but seeing that the Sabbath was upon them, they stopped short of their task and waited until the next day to look after Christ's body.

That "next day" was Sunday (since their Sabbath was on Saturday), and when they came to the tomb, they found that his body was not there.  They were met by two angels who explained that He was risen.  These women became some of the very first witnesses of the Resurrection of the Savior BECAUSE they observed the Sabbath Day as they knew it.

We all want to be witnesses of Christ and we can be.  We can receive these same wonderful witnesses of Him, but sometimes we make things harder than they have to be.  Sometimes receiving a witness is mainly a matter of being in the right place at the right time.  Keeping the Lord's commandment to observe the Sabbath can help us do that.

There are lots of great scriptures on the Sabbath which you can read listed in the Bible Dictionary under "Sabbath."

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