The Sabbath

Today we got to go to church in my hometown with my Mom (Dad was in prison-- a private joke.  He is the executive secretary for the State Penitentiary LDS Branch) and the local family. 
My brother was teaching the lesson in Gospel Essentials and so I went to that class.  I read the first line of the lesson and then spent the majority of the time pondering it while the class moved on. 
"The Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between God and His people." 
I had just been to the temple on Tuesday and so covenants and signs were at the forefront of my mind and easily accessible.  I started wondering, is there a sign for every covenant that we make with God and that He makes with us?  I thought of a few basic ones:  the star at the birth of Christ, the rainbow following the flood, and circumcision.  I definitely need to do more research on this and it excites me to have a topic to look up-- the link between signs and covenants.  I thought about how there are two different kinds of signs and maybe that they aren't different at all, but that's how I could divide them up in my mind.  The first kind of sign is the one that we think of as a foretelling of an event or the result of an action or series of actions based on faith.  The second is a physical action or manifestation on either side of the covenant. 
At the end of the lesson, we discussed the promises that are given from Lord to those who spend the Sabbath Day worthily.  One of the blessings is peace in the land.  Honoring the Sabbath will bring peace to the land.  Not through some magical happenstance, but through people turning their hearts to Heavenly Father and the Savior.  Just as the protection we get from the basic "to do list" we are repeatedly given from prophets down to our Primary teachers, it is the hearts of the people that collectively change and bring a difference in our homes, communities, and countries. 
I think that a people who are partaking of the Sacrament and using it as intended, as a time of repentance and reflection, will be a humble people, will be a peaceful people, will be a joyful people, thus fulfilling those promises. 
Amazing.  And we get to choose it. 
Here is the covenant given to the children of Israel regarding the Sabbath in Leviticus 26:2-12.  The blessings will make you rethink how you spend the Sabbath.  I know I am.
2.  Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence  my sanctuary;  I am the Lord.
3.  If ye walk in my statures, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4.  Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5.  And your threshing shall reach into the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6.  And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid:  and I will rid evil beasts ("Spiders?" cries my hopeful breast) out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 
7.  And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8.  And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put then thousand to flight:  and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword,
9.  For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
10.  And ye shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new.
11.  And I will set my tabernacle among you:  and my soul shall not abhor you.
12.  And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

A Sabbath keeping people are worthy of a temple.  We have temples.  In them, He walks among us.  He is our God and we are His people.  I love it!