Stupid Question on Last Week's Sunday School Lesson

[Yehshen]

I apologize - I feel really stupid asking this question, and I suspect its less doctrine and more culture.

I joined the Church late last year, and I think I have a pretty good idea of doctrine, but then someone goes and says something and I don't get the point. So the discussion involved the holy ghost, and how even doing minor transgressions made it more difficult to receive messages from the holy ghost. Ok. Got it.

So the fellow leading the class said "So, it would be like, if you can imagine, my stopping off at 7-Eleven on my way to church and having a diet coke."

What? Is he worried about being late to church? Diet coke isn't a violation of the word of wisdom, is it? Is it worse to drink diet coke on Sunday? Is the problem buying the diet coke? What if he needed gas?

[john doe]

I believe he was trying to make a point about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We are counseled to do as much as we can to avoid unnecessary shopping on Sunday. And yes, there are exceptions, we call it 'having an ox in the mire'. Some things have to be done on Sunday, but we are encouraged to try as much as possible to plan ahead to avoid it.

[Blocky]

Perhaps it had nothing to do with the Diet Coke. Perhaps that's his beverage of choice. Shopping on Sunday for soda, a non essential, would be the more obvious culprit.

Once the missionaries were over and I offered them something to drink. On of them enthusiastically accepted some Mt. Dew. The other one said 'You're going to drink that?!?!' So, really, personal call.

[applepansy]

Shopping Sunday is viewed as not keeping the Sabbath Holy. If we are purposely not keeping the Sabbath Holy then yes the Holy Ghost will move away from us.

Mosiah 13:16 & 17 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;

BTW... there is no such thing as a stupid question. :)

[LittleWyvern]

What? Is he worried about being late to church?

It does seem like an inconsequential thing, doesn't it? But that's just the danger of it. Sure, buying a diet coke (or anything, really) isn't really all that bad, but if we get trapped in the thinking that it isn't bad, then it becomes easy to do something just a little bit more. Before we know it, though, our little things have snowballed into a big thing, and that definitely would make it harder to feel the Spirit.

Diet coke isn't a violation of the word of wisdom, is it? Is it worse to drink diet coke on Sunday? Is the problem buying the diet coke?

None of the above.

What if he needed gas?

Now, if that's enabling somebody to go to church, that's fine. We should keep the Sabbath Day holy, but we should also be sure we're not missing the point of the Sabbath Day while doing so. A better idea would be to make sure you have enough gas on Saturday, but things do happen.

[RMGuy]

I've really come to have a testimony of not making others work on the sabbath. In order to do my part I have stopped going to church on Sunday. If everyone did this there would be less traffic on the roads and less need for police and safety services. This would allow more people to keep the sabbath day holy.

See what happens when we over analyze?

We need to make sure that we are right with the spirit. I know some that shop on Sunday. I don't generally, but I'm not going to judge them either. You need to do what works for you, but be careful of just justifying something because it is what you want to do.

A great quote I heard recently, "Let's not judge our brothers and sisters because they choose to sin differently from us."

-RM