Sundaes and Sundays

Object lesson

Serve ice cream sundaes with all of the toppings—hot fudge or chocolate syrup, fruit sauces, whipped cream, cherries, and nuts. Have other toppings such as pickles, mustard, tomatoes, salt, butter, onion, etc. also available. Lead a discussion similar to this:

Were you surprised at some of the things I put out for you to put on your ice cream sundaes? What did you put on your sundaes? Why didn’t you leave your sundae as just plain ice cream? Is that really a sundae? Why didn’t you put onion on your sundae? Don’t you like onion? What about the tomato? Don’t you like tomatoes? Is salt good? Why didn’t you put that on your sundae? (Suit to your family’s tastes. If they never like onion, pick something different to compare to things that we don’t do on Sundays).

Sundaes are like day-of-the-week Sundays. Lots of things are available to do with our Sundays. We can leave it plain like the plain ice cream—we can choose not to do much with it at all. What do you think that means? (Sleeping all day, sitting around being lazy) If we leave it plain, is that really a Sunday? Is that really keeping the Sabbath day?

There are some things that we want to put on our Sundays and some things we don’t.

What are some things that are like the toppings you chose? (Reading scriptures, feeling the Spirit, going to Church, visiting with family members, going to Church meetings, baptisms, or firesides, preparing talks, watching Church videos, listening to good music, writing letters, playing uplifting music on an instrument, reading good books or Church magazines, doing missionary work, going home teaching, etc.)

What are some things that are like the toppings that you didn’t choose—things that are good, but don’t "taste good" on Sundays? (Listening to popular music that is clean, shopping, going to good movies, paying the bills, getting gas in the car, watching TV, going out to eat, going to ball games, playing sports, going to work—unless absolutely necessary, etc.—these are examples. Your family should make its own decision about what is appropriate and inappropriate on Sundays. Let the Holy Ghost be your guide.)

Does that mean that sports are bad or that we shouldn’t go shopping? No. Not at all. But, there is a time and a place for sports, just like there is a time and a place for pickles or tomatoes. On a hamburger, they’re great, but they taste awful on ice cream. So next Sunday, think about what you’re putting on your Sunday—mustard or chocolate sauce.