Making the Sacrament Meaningful

Recently there has been an emphasis on bettering our Sabbath day observance in General Conference. This encouragement has led me to study and wonder how I can make Sunday more of a special day. Here is what I found. 

Center the Sabbath on the sacrament.

Our Sundays are to be a day of rest, rejuvenation and of reflection on the Savior. We typically plan our day around our church meetings. The center of our church meetings is the sacrament, or at least it should be. I have realized that all to often the sacrament (being the most consistent part of the meeting) has gotten the least amount of my attention. This is not how it should be. The sacrament should be the focus of our plans and our thoughts every Sunday. Why? Because it is the sacrament that rejuvenates, reminds, and refocuses our spirit. The sacrament, we are taught, is a priesthood ordinance that is designed to bind us to Christ and provide us an opportunity to receive a remission of sins. Essentially to renew our baptismal covenants. 

Treat the sacrament like baptism 

Baptism is the gate to salvation. Christ taught "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." When we are baptized we promise to give our life to Christ, to follow his Spirit, and to love our fellow mankind. If the sacrament is a renewal of that covenant then each week we are renewing that promise. As we listen to the prayers we needs to scrutinize the words of the sacrament prayer and consciously agree to everything we are promising. 

Do we treat the sacrament with the same sanctity that we do baptism? 

Prepare to take the sacrament each week. 

One way we can ensure that we treat the sacrament with the same reverence is to prepare for it the same way we would for baptism. The Doctrine and Covenants lay out what we must do to prepare for baptism. 

"All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church."

We are to come forth humbled, with a contrite spirit and a broken heart, truly witnessing that we have repented of our sins, having a determination to serve God to the end. For the sacrament to be meaningful we need to prepare in the same way. We need to take time BEFORE we partake of the sacrament to repent of our sins, recommit ourself to our Father and remember His Son. It is interesting to note that those who qualify for baptism have ALREADY  "manifest... That they have received of the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins." Need to be worthy of the blessing of the sacrament before to take it. For me this means taking time Saturday night to, in prayer, review my week, repent of my sins and recommit myself to do my Fathers will.  This heart felt interview with my God does more to set the tone for a good Sabbath and prepare me to recover the sacrament then any other thing I have found. 

Live your covenant throughout the week. 

Our Sabbath day worship can only be meaningful if it is something that we carry throughout the week. Remember when you were baptized? If your baptism was anything like mine I felt perfect, clean and full of joy when I stepped out of the water. I remember thinking I felt so good I never wanted to sin again. Obviously I fell short of that. That is the attitude we need to carry when we leave our Sunday worship services. But how can we possibly remain spotless as we renter the world Monday morning? The answer is in the covenant. If we live the covenant then we can keep the covenant. We promise to always remember Him and keep His commandments. Take time each day to evaluate where you are, repent, and ponder on the Savior. Have that childlike faith and determination to never sin again. Carry the promise and the Spirit of the sacrament with you every day. 

As we center our week on Sunday, our Sunday on the Sacrament and our Sacraments on the Savior then the sacrament will become meaningful to us. As we prepare for the sacrament then our hearts and minds will be ready to receive the covenats, promises and protection it provides. As we treat the sacrament with the sacredness it deserves we will feel it's promised blessings. May we all rededicate ourself to make the necessary efforts to make the sacrament meaningful.