Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament

My thoughts on Elder Oaks’ talk “Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament”

Elder Oaks speaks with such economy of words. I hear his training as a lawyer come through the words as much as I hear the words of a prophet as well. What a great reminder of the reason for Sunday.

As I wrote a friend last night, “I hate Sundays. They are not a day of rest for me.” I think I often forget the reason for the Sabbath day and get caught up in all the other things that happen on Sunday. My focus needs to be put back on the sacrament. As our family is reading the New Testament along with the seminary kids we are daily reading the teachings of Jesus while he was on the earth and just this morning we read about the “Last Supper”—or as my kids like to call it “The First Sacrament”. I should have a better attitude toward the Sabbath and the sacrament than I do. Elder Oaks reminds us of why.

This was a great Family Home Evening lesson for our family last week. Here are some of the points we discussed as a family:

Enjoy it as a family. Since I have a lot of teens who would rather be anywhere other than with their family, it was nice to have Elder Oaks to back me up on the family part of the meeting.
Not to comment on other people’s behavior and understand that their level of understanding is not quite there and to lovingly and gently teach them about such things.
We shouldn’t be holding conversations and chit chat while the congregation is gathering. That business needs to be taken care of elsewhere. This is so hard when others don’t live this law. I know it is hard for one of my calling as I pass out papers when new VT assignments are given. The only place I can do it is at church and before sacrament meeting as I’m in primary for the rest of the meetings. (this is where my two callings collide.)
The importance of the meeting should be on the sacrament and all the other things should be focus on that. From talks, to music, to business. It should all reflect on our Savior and the gospel.
Dress—white shirts and conservative ties. Since we do that, we talked about how they should look—PRESSED! We also comments on how we should NEVER judge another by their dress on Sunday. We brought out the point that one year while we were vacationing we wore our blue jeans to church because we weren’t sure we would have access to an iron or electricity. The boys were white polo shirts, jeans and even tennis and Jessie and I wore simple skirts. Our attitude in the way we dress is more important than what we wear, but when we can (which is most all the time) we should be conservative in our dress and if it can’t pass the “would I shake the hand of the prophet wearing this” test then change.
And lastly with so many Priesthood holders and future Priesthood holders in our family it was important for us to go over their duties, the reason for their duties and the manner in which they perform their duties.

It was a great discussion and I hope it sank in.