So I gave my talk in church today, and it went a little something like this:
Hello down there, little people. My name is Maysen Smith. I moved up here from Sandy last week to study psychology, and I just graduated from Alta in June. I was so excited when Bishop Israelsen asked me if I’d be interested in giving a talk this Sunday. In fact, I actually asked if I could be scheduled to speak first, because - hello! - first person speaking on the first real day, I mean, how cool is that?
My topic today is keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Come on, give me a hard one, right? Admittedly though, I do feel a bit underqualified to speak about this. Maybe it’s just me, but doing the little things like not shopping on Sunday has never been a challenge to me. It’s not a question. It’s just a thing that is, and always has been since I was little. And to be perfectly honest, it’s nice not to have any obligations to go out. Sunday gives me plenty of time to relax and think about things. It’s like a time management game: You have to structure your weekly chores, like grocery shopping and social events, around this twenty-four hour period, give or take, where you’re just hands-off. And that’s kind of my thing.
Speaking of time-management games, my dad really likes to work with computers, and one of the ways that he and I and some of my siblings have enjoyed connecting with one another in the past is by playing computer games against each other. “Day of the Tentacle” has always been a personal favorite of mine, with my ultimate record being about twenty-five minutes to beat every puzzle, but there’s also the Monkey Island games - you know, ‘You fight like a dairy farmer’, ‘How appropriate, you fight like a cow’ - “Populous: The Beginning”, “Age of Empires”, “Robot Arenas 1 and 2”, “Rise of Nations”, “Total Annihilation”, “Age of Mythology” (including the Titans Expansion pack), and even some “Multimedia Fusion 2” game programming on the side- I’ve played them all.
I’m really not much of a goal setter. When at the beginning of January my parents handed us all pieces of paper with the twelve months of the year written on them, my “Goals For February” box literally reads ‘I am pretending to write something down’ (and bonus points to any of you out there who caught that reference). I just hate doing all those goal projects. And those statistics about how we’re more likely to complete our goals once we’ve written them down? Don’t even get me started on those.
But somehow, it seems different when setting the goal is your own personal, thoughtful choice, and not your parent or your school teacher shoving the paper at you. Two years ago, I chose of my own totally free will to make the New Year’s resolution of not playing computer games on Sunday anymore, just to help me keep the Holy Spirit with me. Although, a bunch of guys wearing armor surrounding an army who have nothing but spears and loincloths sounds like an accurate description of the second half of the Book of Alma and therefore I can technically argue that I’m still thinking about the scriptures, but ehiyeh.
To sum up Isaiah 58:13-14 in a nice little bow, it says that if we prioritize the Sabbath Day and keeping it sacred for the Lord, then we’ll be lifted up and blessed. It’s a pretty basic concept to wrap our heads around, but sometimes it can be more difficult in practice. I come from a home where both my parents and all my siblings have always been members of the Church. I’ve never had a friend invite me to an activity on Sunday since I was in first or second grade. And if I remember correctly, I walked through the door after school and said instantly to my mom, “I was invited to a party at the roller skating rink. Too bad it’s on Sunday so I can’t go,” and probably handed her the invitation and skipped off to have apple slices or something. For a kid, it was really that simple.
Then, I’ve never been in the position where I’ve been asked if I could work a job on Sunday, whether it means leaving in the middle of Church or not. I’ve been fortunate that way, although I imagine that one day I will be asked directly to make that choice, and I hope that I choose for the best.
Until then, I like to draw. I don’t claim to be any kind of ‘real’ artsy-artist, but I do love to sit down and sketch people or animals or fairies, especially when I’m listening to or watching something else. Actually, my New Year’s revolution for this year was to improve my artistic abilities by drawing my lighthearted interpretations of a different scripture character for each of the 52 Sundays in the year. And so far I’ve kept up with that. Last week, for Week 34, I drew the Three Nephites. And I can’t remember off the top of my head who comes after them, so I'll have to be looking that up when I get home.
I’ve done Nephi raising the sword to slay Laban; Amaron and Chemish fighting over the “I saw what my brother wrote, and he didn’t carve anything into the plates until the day he gave these to me” line from in the Book of Omni, Ammon petting a sheep while surrounded by severed arms; King Lamoni frantically explaining to his dad that he was late to dinner because his new best friend talked his ear off until he passed out for three days (“and no, Dad, you can’t kill him or else he’ll paralyze your arm, geez”)...
I've done King Noah riding a jaguar while wearing his ridiculous potted plant hat; Alma the Younger being a giant bratty party boy who throws around friendship anklets like carbon dioxide, later befriends some random guy who gave him bread, and constantly bothers his son Helaman about getting a girlfriend; Gadianton singing assorted “Aladdin” songs about friendship to Kishkumen; and Samuel the Lamanite playing “Dance Dance Revolution: Extreme Edition”.
I’ve even drawn Governor Lachoneus making “Spongebob” references as he insists to his people that the Gadianton Robbers won’t be able to starve them through siege if they “just take their stuff, and push it somewhere else”. Don’t laugh- it worked.
This project is meant to be casual and silly, but it’s forced me to read through the Book of Mormon looking at the ‘characters’ therein as real, with real faces, and it’s really helped me connect their lives to mine. They’re my history, and their culture is my culture in a way too.
While drawing is one way to spend a Sunday, there are other ways the pencil can be put to paper. I have friends who strive hard to finish their homework earlier in the weekend so it doesn’t have to be done on Sunday. I’m not demanding that any of you go that far if you don’t want to. I do tend to finish my homework on the first day of the weekend rather than the second if it can be done, and that may be because I try to avoid procrastination. I personally don’t have a problem with reviewing notes or completing work problems on Sunday, and especially if you’re seeking to be inspired in an area that you’ve been struggling in, but that might be because I’ve rarely been in a situation where it’s come up.
Either way, the purpose of the Sabbath Day will always be to renew your own personal covenants with the Lord. Sunday isn’t just the Lord’s time. It’s your time too, to remind yourself why you put on the pretty dresses and the strangling ties and do it all.
I’m really grateful to have the opportunity to be up here on my own as an adult for the first time. I’m grateful for the way my parents raised me, even if it did sometimes scratch at my nerves. I’m even grateful that I accidentally went all the way up to the wrong stake center at the wrong time last week so I had to come see the bishop one-on-one and end up asked to drum my fingers on this pulpit speak to you today. I hope that aside from keeping the Sabbath Day holy, we can all write powerful stories with the approaching horizon of blank pages in our life and look out for one another as good friends.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Turns out you CAN say, "How appropriate- you fight like a cow" over the pulpit and they won't throw you out. Best talk I've probably ever given. I spoke a bit faster than I meant to (I sped-read all the computer game names and sort of made swinging motions with my hands as I listed them, much to the amusement of the audience) and probably fell short of the ten-minute mark, but I had the effect I'd wanted. Everyone laughed in all the right places and I had a lot of people compliment me and want to shake my hand. That's always a good way to start out in a new ward. Brother Wade, the first counselor, asked if I would talk again next week! ... I told him no, and he laughed too.
Demetria and I went to ward prayer this evening. While there, we met a girl named Eliza. She lives up the street between the church and Blue Square. We ended up walking her back to our place and showing her around, and we talked for a good long while before we walked her home again.
And, when we walked on the sidewalk, the three of us walked side by side. When I was on the side, they didn't pair off without me. Even when I was in the middle of the group, I didn't get fenced off and closed over, stuck walking behind the two of them. I know for a fact that hasn't happened for years until today... and it happened earlier too when we walked our other tentative new friend Ellie to her place after the block! College really is a magical place.
