I come from a secular family and was raised on secular values. Growing up, I would be like all the other young boys my age—go to school Monday through Friday, and play video games or sports for 8+ hours a day on Saturday and Sunday. I have some good memories of those times, but it is obvious to me now that extensive gaming was rotting my brain. It’s not something that productive adults should be spending all their weekends on, even as a way to relax.

I started working at the age of 15, and before I learned about the Sabbath, I would work any day of the week—weekends included, even though that meant getting less sleep. This meant I had little free time. As you might imagine, there were some stressful periods during college due to this lack of rest.

I’m grateful to have hard-working parents to look up to. Born in Saigon, Vietnam shortly before the Vietnam War, they understood all too well what it was like to be in poverty. When they came to the USA, they had to work incredibly hard in order to make ends meet.

While this is admirable, I always felt as if my mom, especially, worked TOO hard. She is obsessed with making money and with being able to provide for herself and her family—and has worked 7 days a week for as long as I can remember. While she is financially stable, it’s easy to see how the stress of working constantly with no breaks or time to relax has affected her personality and her general countenance. Obsession for money destroyed the relationship between my mother and father, leading to their divorce, and it didn’t help the relationship very much with my brother or me, either. There was little to no time to sit down together and talk about life. Even when there was time, we weren’t connected as a family, so there were really no genuine conversations to be had. Other than at restaurants, my mother only sat at the table to have a meal with me, my brother and/or my father perhaps once a month (at the most.)

You learn what to do from your parents. You can also learn what NOT to do from your parents, if you happen to observe destructive habits. I knew the value of rest from work. But what really highlighted it for me was coming to the Christian faith and learning about the beauty of the Sabbath day. At 25 years old, I was introduced to the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement church. I never knew there were people who went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday! Why was the Sabbath day of rest—rest from all the toils of life—basically unknown by most of the world? It was like discovering one of the world’s greatest secrets.

What do Sabbathkeepers do on the Sabbath day? We study or teach (see Luke 4:16, which shows Jesus reading in the synagogue on the Sabbath); we give praises to the Lord with voice and music (see Psam 92:1, 3); and of course, we rest. The fourth commandment of the Bible explicitly commands, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8–11).

If you are a Christian, you ought to follow God’s will, and you ought to constantly seek for truth, right? There is no controversy that Friday evening to Saturday evening is considered the true Sabbath day. Jesus tells us in Mark 2:27, 28, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.”

God gave us the Sabbath day for a reason. It is for us to rest, and it is a memorial of God’s creation. It’s my chance to reflect on God’s love for me. On this day, I can take the time to walk outside with no obligation from work or other commitments. I can smell the flowers, feel the gentle breeze and the sunshine on my face, fellowship with church brethren, and learn more about the God who created the entire universe. I spend time in prayer. It’s a perfect opportunity to minister to the needy or visit the sick. (Sometimes we visit other people’s homes or nursing homes as a church and play music to revitalize our souls.)

In short, the Sabbath is a delight to me personally because it brings me closer to God, the Living Water. The Bible telss us in Isaiah 58:13, 14, “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that we need a day to rest, and to reflect on His mercy and love. I know without a doubt that my life is better than it used to be, because I have one day—the holy Sabbath day—where I can lay aside the worries of the week and my life stresses. When I come back to work on Sunday, I’m always refreshed physically and spiritually, and am prepared to work in the service of God for others. I’m able to reflect on the beauty of the earth and appreciate my life far more than I used to.

Spending time with Christ on the Sabbath has improved my overall mental health, and I truly believe it would do the same for everyone else. In my experience and understanding, most societies are overworked, on edge, and totally stressed out. It is my wish and prayer that more people will take the Sabbath day seriously, for their own sakes! I thank God for the blessing of the Sabbath day, and I cannot emphasize enough to you, dear reader, what a difference it could make in your life if you just gave it a try.