This past Sunday was our very first sacrament meeting at home. We received the email from the church saying that as a precautionary measure due to the COVID-19 (Corona virus) worldwide pandemic, we are to hold sacrament meetings in our own homes. At the mention of it, I told Steve that I felt we should truly make it a worship service, dress up, sing hymns, and make it special. Steve agreed and added that we should assign talks and have Sunday School following sacrament meeting. We were both on the same page from the get go. Our kids were excited to hear about sacrament meeting at home, but less enthused that it wouldn't be like watching general conference on TV where we watch in our pajamas.
We planned to start at 10:30, but there were various hiccups and we ended up starting about an hour later, but when we began, and prepared for the sacrament, it truly was a sacred experience.
Amara and I worked to make the house clean. I wanted to prepare the place to invite the spirit. We layed out a white sheet over our kitchen table and even attempted to press the wrinkles out of it. It made me realize just how much goes into preparing for this sacred ordinance. It made me so grateful for all those who prepare every Sunday to make this experience happen for me. Everything from cleaning, pressing the white table cloth, assigning and preparing talks and lessons, arranging prelude and hymns to sing, gathering hymnals, moving furniture... there were a lot of things to prepare besides ourselves for sacrament meeting at home.
I snapped a few pictures before we started just so that I could remember what these times were like. The coronavirus pandemic won't last forever and eventually we will return to church services. This little worship service in our own home is sacred.
Update: September 27, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic hasn't gone away. I kinda thought things were going to die down after a couple months, but here we are half a year later and people are trying to resume some of their normal activities in a mask-modified way, but life is not normal. We're still playing things pandemickly.
My brother, Micah's family and my sister and my mom have all tested positive for COVID-19, and they've all recovered. Recently, we attended the baptism of my nephew Rexton. We gathered at my brother's house since there are not to be large gatherings or meetings at the churches, still. We did the program at the house, complete with masks and social distancing. The set up was amazing. There was a laptop set up in the living room, another screen downstairs, and a camera and screen set up in the living room. There were families all throughout their house. Those presenting talks, prayers, leading music, etc., just stood in front of the camera and everyone could see them, including those joining in remotely on the zoom meeting stream. (Which, by the way, Micah started at his boss's house so he could use his bandwidth.) It touched my heart to see so many family members "zoom" in, family that would otherwise not be able to participate at all because they live so far away.
After the program there was a short intermission while Rexton and his immediate family (and 2 grandpas) went to the church, and prepared for the baptism. (P.S. It's cool that his brothers Jaxon and Maxwell were the witnesses to the baptism!) The baptism was streamed on Zoom and all of us at the house were able to witness the ordinance. It was beautiful.
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| Masked up me with Rex's baptism program |
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| Rexton cracking open his new Book of Mormon |
"I love being a child of God!" Those were Rex's exact words as he stood up to lead us all in singing I Am A Child of God. His testimony was so powerful to me. I have shared it with several family members and wrote it in my journal. I love that proclamation of his and I could feel the truth behind it! I, too, love being a child of God and all that means. God is my father. As such, and in a most perfect way, He protects me, feeds me, cares for me, loves me, warns me, corrects me, carries me, and guides me on life's journey. I love being a child of God!
So...
Church at home has been a blessing. I am so thankful we can continue to worship during this time of turmoil for so many. There is a lot of hope that has come from church at home. There's been a lot of change in our lives, both outwardly and inwardly. I have been grateful for the deeper introspection that the sacrament at home has had on my life and those in my family. It has become a meaningful covenant that I feel bad for neglecting the importance of during the old routine at church. When you listen to your children give a spiritually led talk or sunday school lesson each week, it deepens your appreciation for their spiritual journey and your own as a parent. When you prepare a lesson or talk with your family as the audience in mind, the stress is heaps less and your content more sincere and simple. I'm learning a lot from church at home.
We've had some wonderful sunday school lessons. There are visual reminders tacked up all over our house now that point to the scriptures and what we learned that week. I always intend to take them down after the week is over, but honestly, I love the messages, so they stay up longer. We have our own titles of liberty taped on the walls, favorite introspective verses from Alma 5 in various locations, pictures of Christ we've colored with chains made up of paper links that we have written upon things we can do to remember Christ, and even posters we made together advertising something we learned from the readings that week.
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| Poster made by me and mom advertising where we find real riches. |
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Poster made by Lily and Amara advertising putting the kingdom of God first.
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