RuthAnne Strong: Sabbath Day Sundaes

Offer Up Thy Sacraments upon My Holy Day

A few years ago I was one of the Relief Society instructors in my singles ward. I honestly loved that calling! I was able to connect with the women in my ward in a way that let me get to know them, and especially their testimonies too! I've been keeping all my lesson outlines incase if one day I become a RS instructor again, but thought I might as well put them all up on my little old blog!

Like I said this was a few years ago so even though this specific lesson from a previous Teachings of the Presidents of the Church manual might not exactly line up with your lesson now, I still hope it can be a source of inspiration and maybe spark an idea for you while your planning your own. For reference I was teaching out of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith. So let's get into it, I hope you find Relief Society as fun as I do! And expect a few more Relief Society Lesson ideas and helps.

We live in perilous times prophesied by the Apostle Paul. Those who try to walk the straight and narrow path see inviting detours on every hand. We can be distracted, degraded, downhearted, or depressed. How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices and keep us on the path? In modern revelation the Lord gave the answer in this commandment: 'And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day. -Elder Dallin H. Oaks

The Sabbath is designed to direct our thought away from the world and to focus on the Lord instead. In the beginning, God consecrated the seventh day to represent God's day of rest after He created the world. After Christ's resurrection, the first day of the week was honored as the Sabbath to commemorate His resurrection and symbolize that it is the Savior who truly gives us rest.

God's commandment that we keep the Sabbath day holy is not a burden but a blessing.

Just think about how the world would change if everyone kept the Sabbath a day of worship. There's no way of knowing the beneficial change that might come if that happened. The world would have us think Sunday as Sunday Funday, as if it could be the one day we could completely go against the commandments of God.

Now is the time to ask ourselves: Is the Sabbath a holy day or a holiday? Shall I worship the Lord or worship pleasures and recreation?-Charles Didier

In our class we discussed how society in general would benefit if more people honored the Sabbath day. We also talked about some appropriate ways to help our families and others see Sabbath-day observance as a blessing rather than a burden. We need to be prepared to teach our own families to keep this day sacred and special when the time comes.

Sometimes I wonder what activities are appropriate for the Sabbath day and I ask a few questions to see if it will make it a holy day or a holiday. On the board I made a bigger version of this Sabbath Sundae with questions we could ask ourselves if we are wondering about activities.

1. Will it draw me closer to God?

2. Does it show respect for the Savior?

3. Does it show love for the Savior?

4. Will it inspire me?

5. Will it direct my thought to the Lord?

Once I went over these I gave each person a worksheet so they could make their own perfect Sabbath Sundae with activities they would enjoy doing, but they had to go through these questions before writing it down. I shared some of the things on my own list and a few ideas from a list I found online of 110 things to do on the Sabbath. I also had a few items on display to help them think of things like a little temple to represent a visit to the temple grounds, crochet, read church magazines, make or play church file folder games. I then asked the class to share what they put on their own Sundaes.

Attending church is an important part of keeping the Sabbath day holy.

We learn and gain so much when we come together as a ward and share our thoughts, feelings and testimonies. We especially go to partake of the sacrament and say spoken and unspoken prayers.

It is a sacred privilege to partake of the sacrament on the Sabbath day.

We have to recognize how important the sacrament really is and what a privilege it is by learning about it. On the back of their Sabbath Sundae worksheet I put a summary of a talk by John Bytheway where he talked about some of the symbolism of the sacrament. Hopefully before the next sacrament meeting they can read all of these and make the ordinance of the sacrament a more meaningful part of their lives. We then discussed how we can make the sacrament a more meaningful part of our lives.

With so very much at stake, this ordinance commemorating our escape from the angel of darkness should be taken more seriously than it sometimes is. It should be a powerful, reverent reflective moment. It should encourage spiritual feelings and impressions. As such it should not be rushed. It is not something to "get over" so that the real purpose of a sacrament meeting can be pursued. This is the real purpose of the meeting. And everything that is said or sung or prayed in those services should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance.-Elder Holland

Worthily partaking of the Sacrament renews our spiritual strength.

It's so important to worthily partake of the sacrament. We discussed how worthily partaking of the sacrament increases our spiritual strength. The Sabbath day is an opportunity to show the Lord that we put Him first in our lives.

"How can we have the Spirit of the Lord to guide our choices so that we will remain 'unspotted from the world' and on the safe path through mortality? We need to qualify for the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We do this by keeping His commandment to come to Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit and in that wonderful meeting partake of the emblems of the sacrament and make the covenants that qualify us for the precious promise that we will always have His spirit to be with us."-Elder Oaks

I ended the lesson by giving them each a mini Sabbath Sundae complete with a little cherry on top! These are super easy to make too! I got some cute decorated mini muffin liners at Gygi's here in Utah (find a similar version online HERE) and some little ice cream spoons (online option HERE). I had my dad drill a hole into all the spoons and tied a little quote to the spoon. It was so fun to see all of these on little cupcake stands waiting for the girls to grab them! I filled them with a small handful of assorted Sweet's taffy, used a little bit of plastic wrap to help mold them into a ball and then cut a toothpick and put one end in a cherry sour for the cherry on top and the other end in the middle of the taffy. It was seriously one of my favorite handouts!