Thursday, October 27, 2016

I See... Your Sunday Best

I grew up in the model mormon home with six lively brothers and sisters and parents who let their actions and teachings show how much they loved us. Of all the gifts they left us, perhaps one of the most precious was love and respect for the Lord's Day. One distinct memory was the requirement to wear our “Sunday best;” my brothers and I put on faded white short-sleeved shirts with clip-on ties, and my sisters wore their best dresses. Since then, I've always tried to look my best on Sunday; it's a symbolic outer reflection of my inner commitment to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, last Sunday I attended a special sacrament meeting where virtually no one, not even myself, were wearing their Sunday best. I should have been appalled and offended. Approximately 240 priesthood holders of all ages from two stakes in North Carolina were crammed into the LDS Chapel in Conway, South Carolina dressed in their “Sunday worst;” dusty work boots and dirty jeans with ripped leather work gloves hanging out the back pockets; stained, worn teeshirts decorated with the remnants of chainsaw dust; unshaven faces gloriously topped with creatively positioned bedheads. We were a mess.

But where were our hearts? We had all volunteered to spend a whole weekend in hurricane-damaged portions of Conway and Florence South Carolina clearing downed trees and destruction off of the properties of some of the poorest, disabled, and disadvantaged residents of the area. Like the Savior did for us, we did something for them they could not do for themselves; most likely the dangerously downed trees would have lied around their properties indefinitely had we not offered our help.
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So... there we were, 7:30 am on a crisp sunny Sunday morning, taking a 30-minute break from our labors to partake of the sacrament and receive brief reminders from a general authority about the blessings of service and sacrifice. And then we left to complete a few more work orders.

The Savior was challenged by Pharisees and scribes: “Is it ok to heal on the Sabbath?” In this case, I claim that while we were not wearing our “Sunday best” clothes, we were certainly giving our Sunday best.


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