“A Lesson for Mother,” Friend, June 2001, 2
A Lesson for Mother
A true story
[On] Saturday … we shop at the store, So we won’t have to work until Monday (Children’s Songbook, page 196).
Eight-year-old Stewart was feeling happy. He had already been to church with his family. They had a big family, and this was a special day. Lots of friends and relatives were coming to eat dinner with them. Stewart was glad, because he loved being with all his cousins.
When his mother asked him if he’d like to go with her in the car, he quickly climbed in. As they drove around the corner, she told him that they were going to the store to get a few things that she needed for the dinner.
Stewart didn’t feel so happy anymore.
When the car pulled into the store parking lot, Mother climbed out and looked for Stewart. Where was he? She looked and looked. Finally she saw him crouched down in the backseat. “Aren’t you coming in with me, sweetheart?”
“No,” he mumbled miserably.
“OK. I’ll hurry.”
It wasn’t long until Mother came back carrying a bag. She put it into the backseat. As she drove home, she reached over and patted Stewart’s hand. “Why don’t you tell me what you are upset about.”
“I didn’t know that you were going to the store. I don’t ever want to go to the store on Heavenly Father’s special day.”
“Oh, Stewart, I’m so sorry! I will never go to the store on Heavenly Father’s day again.”
Mother knew that her little boy had made a better choice than she had. She knew that she shouldn’t shop on the Sabbath, even this one time, when it had seemed so important. Stewart taught her a lesson that she never forgot.
Stewart is all grown up now, and his mother is a grandma. Both of them remember that sunny Sunday afternoon and the lesson he taught her about keeping the Sabbath Day.
Modern-day prophets have encouraged us not to shop on Sunday.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
(Ensign, February 2000, page 54.)
Illustrated by Amy Davis