| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 3144 Registered: 7-2007 |
I was wondering what memories you have of "keeping" the Sabbath back when you were Adventists... Here's one I have. I was probably around 10 years old or so, when my family and I were taking a Sabbath walk on a hot Summer day. We came upon the most wonderfully refreshing looking stream and I wished greatly that if only it wasn't Sabbath - I would have gone into the stream, clothes and all! My little brother begged our mother for permission to go into the stream. He promised he wouldn't swim since it was Sabbath, but kind of scoot along in the water. I protested vigorously since it was Sabbath, but watched in great envy as my brother played in the water. Of course I didn't stop being an Adventist because of that. I felt I had to not swim because it would be disobeying God. It wasn't for another 40 years or so before I learned about the New Covenant, finding out that the SDA religion is simply a cult. How about the rest of you? | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14515 Registered: 12-2003  |
I remember struggling against boredom on Sabbath afternoons. I always tried to be sure I had a "Sabbath book" to read while my parents napped. I also remember wondering, sometime in my teens, why we had to put away "secular music" and "secular books and magazines" on the Sabbath, but the pictures on the wall never had to be changed. We had to segregate music and literature into sacred and secular, but art seemed to go unnoticed. Colleen | ||
| Eternal_joy Registered user Username: Eternal_joy Post Number: 49 Registered: 9-2012 |
Every Friday night, we would have burritos or haystacks and set the table with a pretty tablecloth and nice dishes. We would have the blessing and then my mom would light "Sabbath candles" while we all recited the 4th commandment together. | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 482 Registered: 4-2012 |
Asurprise, It's interesting you mention swimming. Just shows me how much each family makes up their own rules. I could swim in God given nature such as the oceans, streams and rivers because since those were our gifts from God to enjoy they were ok. But, swimming in man-made pools were as against the rules because they didn't glorify the Creator. Yet, I had an aunt, all also a lifelong SDA who on Sabbath afternoons would tell the kids to each get a bike and a bb gun and go play Cowboys and Indians, but we weren't supposed to shoot each other above the waist. Needless to say, I think you all can figure out quite easily which relative I preferred to spend Sabbath afternoons with when I was a kid. LOL | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 483 Registered: 4-2012 |
Mostly though Friday sunset through Saturday sunset was just plain boring, unless the weather was real nice. Then I could go outside and play with the neighbor kids. But, I loved, totally loved Girl Scouts. Then our troop leader scheduled a weekend camp out. I was really happy and excited about going. For reasons never explained to me several days before the camp oumy mother told me I couldn't go and I had to quit Girl Scouts, go to the SDA school the next year, as I'd been in public school and the next week I was starting a club that was kinda like Girl Scouts called Pathfinders. My life dramatically changed over a time poo period of.less than a week for no other reason (from me spending years trying to figure it out) than my mom not wanting me to go on a camp out over Sabbath with non-Sabbath keepers. That's the only thing I can think of to cause those changes so rapidly in my life as a third grade kid. My dad insisted Sabbath was intended to be a day of rest and that's what he did. Every Sabbath afternoon he'd sleep. My mother would read The Review, The Recorder and so on and I'd try to get outside as much as possible. I thank the Lord 3 ANN hadn't yet been invented yet we when I was a kid. | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 330 Registered: 5-2011  |
I was also bored most Sabbath afternoons. My mother and aunt slept while my sister and I had to entertain ourselves in the house. I remember not being able to go to Independence Day fireworks displays if they were on Friday night. I remember looking out the window and seeing the flickers in the sky and was wishing I were at the beach watching the display. I lived down the street from that beach and wanted to go there on Saturday afternoons. Alas, I was never allowed to step foot on that beach. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 10033 Registered: 3-2004  |
As a kid, we had in our yard a "pond" like area that was about 2 inches deep. During the summer we would put water in it and splash each other, but on sabbaths we could not. We could not climb the big fig tree in the yard. We girls could play with our dolls. One sabbath my Dad's sister came over and scolded us for playing with the dolls. I remember us telling her that our Mom said we coud. Ahh, we could not play wrestling on sabbath. I did look forward to sundown, all year round. Thank you awesome God You taught me NOT to teach my son that way. Diana | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 488 Registered: 4-2012 |
Yeah,Diana, I know a lady who was raised SDA and her family didn't even bring the newspaper or mail in on Saturdays. My mother would use those sorts of examples to show me that our family practiced grace and the New Testament New Covenant and those people were still living"under the law"because they were more strict than her. But,truthfully she was every bit as as strict only she had different rules made up for our family than other people we knew did. The zoo was another interesting rule. Our family went to the zoo alot on Sabbaths but some families I knew wouldn't because of the admission fee | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14520 Registered: 12-2003 |
I do remember coming home from school on Friday afternoons and smelling the week's supply of fresh bread cooling on the counter. (Yup...cooling...no warm bread, y'know. The yeast was "still alive", and it would be bad for us. I was never sure HOW it would be bad for us, but it would.) My mom did allow us to eat it slightly warm sometimes, though... Colleen | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 333 Registered: 5-2011 |
I missed my high school graduation because I was afraid to go. I was afraid of making God angry. Also, I wanted everyone to become SDAs, so I was afraid of being a stumbling block to anyone who wanted to join the church. I would have marched in a white gown with a gold braid for being in the National Honor Society. | ||
| Martin Registered user Username: Martin Post Number: 170 Registered: 11-2008 |
Have you noticed how commonplace was, as a SDA, to spend a large portion of the Sabbath just sleeping? This is something I've been thinking about after reading your comments and remembering my own experiences. A typical Sabbath for me, when I was a kid, started going to church in the morning and then spending a few hours there - I have to admit that I do not currently miss the long, long services I had to attend in the SDA church. If we didn't stay at church for a potluck, we would return home to have a relatively big lunch and then, maybe, go to sleep... In my house this didn't happen every Sabbath, mainly because my mum wasn't an Adventist for long (she left the church much earlier than me and due to different reasons) and my dad wasn't that strict about that type of things. However, whenever I stayed at the house of some church friends, uh, things would be different. I didn't enjoy the 'obligatory' naps and would simply lie in bed, maybe reading a book, and waiting for the adults to come out of their rooms. It was pretty boring. Finally, later in the day we would return to church if there was any evening service or event, which would also usually last for a pretty long time... Especially the concerts. We may also participate in an evangelism event, which most often consisted in giving fliers to people in the street. If nothing like that was programmed, then people may sleep for a longer time. Nothing wrong with having a nap. I love a good sleep. And I can see how good it can be for people who spend the whole week working very hard and then need a good rest... But I could never understand how, for many, spending a large portion of the day in bed was, somehow, more fitting as a Sabbath activity than, say, go to swim in the sea or enjoy time freely with family and friends, especially if they weren't SDAs. As I said, due to our own circumstances in my own family things were quite relaxed, but for others the Sabbaths were really restrictive times... You could feel it in the air! A big difference between my current situation and when I was a SDA, is that Sundays tend to be a lot more active than my Saturdays ever were. So much that at times you certainly need a 'Sabbath day' to recover from all you've done at church :-) | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14525 Registered: 12-2003 |
Well, the irony is that EGW distinctly wrote that one should NOT spend the Sabbath sleeping. The faithful were to go out and do missionary work. When I first married Richard and we visited his parents, I would be exhausted. I was still teaching jr. high full time, and by Sabbath, I was nearly sleep-walking. I would fall asleep after lunch, but his mom would only permit me a half hour or so to sleep; I was awakened to go take a walk, or to visit Richard's grandpa at the retirement home where he lived, etc. I would be SO groggy I could barely walk much less think. I can remember taking excedrin before getting into the car to drive to the walk area just so I could have a kick start from the caffeine to begin to wake up. (Of course, there was no coffee available.) True-blue Adventists living by the "blueprint" really do not believe in sleeping Sabbath afternoon away. Colleen | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 1237 Registered: 7-2004  |
It's a little hard not to sleep after the typical high-carb Sabbath meal, finished off with dessert. Usually that's the nicest meal of the week (at least in my family it was) and so it's also easy to overeat, further contributing to the nap effect. | ||
| Joyfulheart Registered user Username: Joyfulheart Post Number: 949 Registered: 10-2006 |
Colleen, that's part of what got me in so much trouble with the SDA elders. I was always asking things like: Isn't the Sabbath supposed to be a day of rest? Why are we out doing evangelism? Why are the kids playing with toys and running around the fellowship room when EGW said not to. Why was it ok for us to go see the tall ships exhibit on the Sabbath since it was a secular activity? Isn't setting up the tables and chairs and putting them away work? Why isn't that done before or after the Sabbath? Oh, you live in ___ a half hour away? That's an excuse to break the law of God that is the seal of God? (It was a church plant and just about all of the members lived about a half hour away. The church was being rented.) Why are the women doing the dishes at the church instead of taking them home to do after the Sabbath? Why is it ok to make salads (washing green, cutting vegetables etc.)and decorate cakes in the kitchen before a potluck? After the meal, while the men sat around and talked the women were supposed to start washing tables and cleaning up. It looked bad for women who were still eating or talking with friends. I was told I was a legalist and just didn't understand. I didn't. I didn't understand why it was ok to throw a ball to play with the dogs at a summer Sabbath picnic at the lake, but not ok to play volleyball or swim in the lake. I didn't understand what constituted work and continually asked about it, but never got an answer. Sometimes Ellen White's rules stood. Sometimes they were outdated. Sometimes biblical Sabbath rules stood, sometimes in fact most often they didn't even though the Bible and not Ellen White's rules were the ultimate guide. I tried so hard to be an Adventist because I genuinely loved the church and people. Nothing made sense about how they kept the Sabbath. It seemed to me that one could make up their own rules based on nothing, but what they thought was probably ok to do. It really didn't matter if you worked as long as you didn't go to a paying job. That was serious - unless you were a Dr. or nurse - then it was ok because they were necessary. Police officers and fire fighters - not so much. That was until the Pastor's wife opened up a clinic in a store that was opened on Sabbath for urgent care needs of non Sabbath keepers. The Pastor who supported his wife got removed from the church I attended for that one. The other two churches he pastored were fine with it. Ah, Sabbath memories from an adult convert with no SDA family. |
