Superbowls and Sundays

Disclaimer:  I realize everyone has their own level of devotion to the Sabbath Day - and how I have chosen to honor the Sabbath may pale in comparison to the devotion of others or may seem extreme to some.  No judgement here.  We all walk our own path.

But here is my story.. Years ago, I committed myself to keeping the Sabbath Holy.  It was a personal effort to increase my devotion to God.  I decided that was my offering to God and, no matter what, I would try my best to honor the Sabbath Day.  

It was pretty easy at first.  No shopping, no boating trips, no going to the movies or watching television (Luckily I can record Downton Abbey).  The harder part was doing positive things to fill my beautiful Sundays.  Plan with the family, eat together, fellowship with church members and neighbors, read my scriptures and other good books, play games with the kids.

It was all good until the Super Bowl Sunday rolled around and my kids were old enough to know that there were parties going on at every other house in the neighborhood.  That is what everyone was talking about at church - there was an excitement and buzz - Where would you watch it?  Who invited who over?  What food are you serving?  All our friends were getting together to watch the game of the century with lots of food and fun.  The pressure was tremendous...  Should we go?  How do we explain why we aren't coming?

When do you change what you have dedicated to God to fit in with those around you?...

It was hard.  My husband was miserable.  My kids were revolting.  I was second guessing my offering of devotion.  Wasn't doing what is right supposed to make us happy?  Why were we all so NOT happy?  It was torture.

My family had a million complaints:  Why were we the ONLY people on the planet not watching the Super Bowl?  Why were we the ONLY people who wouldn't know about that awesome play or that super funny commercial?  Why did we have to miss out on the biggest event in history?  What would we say around the cooler at work?  The concerns were valid (although a bit first worldlish...) but real to my family.  How do we fit in and still keep our commitment to God?

Why can't we just do it this one day?  I thought a lot about that question.  And I guess we could have. But I wonder how it would feel like to explain to God that we kept our promise to Him at all times except the times when we planned not to...?  It just felt wrong to PLAN to break the Sabbath.

Ugh!  How do we justify the situation?

Then my husband had a brilliant idea!  Let's just go to bed early and get up super early and watch it.  Why didn't I think of that?  Probably because football isn't that big of a deal to me - but it is to him so we decided to do it.

We got up at 4 AM and the adversity began to push back on our efforts.  The remote was gone!  We looked and looked.  It was nowhere!  AAAAHHHHHHHH!  7 people looking for a remote that was there yesterday but gone today...  So much aggravation I can't even describe it.  It was like Satan was just laughing at our feeble attempt.  We looked for 30 minutes which seemed like forever at 4:00 in the morning...  Finally we said a prayer and wallah!  We found the remote!

We turned on the Super Bowl and I made a yummy  breakfast.  They watched the game.  We weren't so strange and backwards anymore.  My family went out into the world knowing what happened during the Super Bowl.  Yay.  Life was good.  A tradition was born.

The next year we planned ahead.  We carefully placed the remote in it's designated spot.  Prepared as much of the food as we could ahead of time and the tradition continued.  We got up and had a Super Bowl party before school.  And the years ticked by with our new tradition.  It was our thing.  Our family.  Something special but different.

So, yesterday I hardly even knew it was Super Bowl Sunday.  The stress and anxiety and pressure of years gone by was gone.  The house was calm - or as calm as it usually is on Sundays (which actually isn't calm at all...)  We had dinner and family planning and one of our kids actually shared a beautiful testimony of his gratitude that families can be together forever during scripture study.  

This morning with chorizzo tacos and blueberry pancakes we ate and snuggled and watched the Super Bowl - or at least part of it.   It was tradition.  And fun.  And exciting and wonderful.

Often I am so fed up with all the adversity and pressure I feel and I am ready to throw in the towel.  But I am so grateful for the times that I don't and the beauty that comes after the storm.  Because I can testify there is always a storm.  But I could never enjoy a Super Bowl as much on a Sunday as I do on a Monday morning snuggled up with my family.