Sunday Rest

I've rediscovered a truth about how the Sabbath is a day of rest. "Rest" when referring to the Sabbath isn't the same as what "rest" usually connotes. Growing up, I thought that the day of rest meant sleeping in, lazily enjoying church, gorging out on a large Sunday dinner and settling down for a long, long, long nap. Now, again, I see that instead it is a day to rest from everyday cares and to refocus our spiritual efforts for the coming week.
I sometimes lose this focus because I feel so busy on Sundays. I sometimes get home at night and wonder where my coveted day of rest has gone. The more I have grown to love the gospel and the LDS Church, the more responsibilities I have had and the busier my Sunday's have become. Add a husband who also has great faith and 3 children, and tonight (Sunday night) I am finally "resting" by the world's definition around 9:00 pm at night (and my husband is not yet home from meetings). How, after another Sunday which was even busier than normal, can I feel rested? Here's the story:
Last night (Saturday) I was tempted to stay home from our area's Stake Conference adult meeting because it was past Euan's bedtime, Meili was sick, and Scott had an earlier Priesthood meeting which only gave us time to kiss across the threshold (since he would stay home with Mei and Euan). But just as I was considering it, Sophie started crying to me that she wanted to go so she could feel the Holy Ghost and to make Heavenly Father happy. How could I stay home after that? So she and I hopped on our scooter and zoomed through the crazy Saturday night scooter traffic (think of the game "frogger" but with fearless teenagers on scooters) and headed 45 minutes to our church house. Then I struggled through 2 hours of a meeting that I didn't understand more than a few words of, hoping that at least I would be blessed for my efforts of being a good example to my daughter, and headed back to get home just before 10 pm!
So, imagine my feelings this morning after my husband has another 2 hour meeting 20 minutes away and gets home just in time to go with us to our Stake Conference (we have three kids and two scooters as transportation and have made it a rule to never ride with more than 2 kids on a scooter. Inconvenient at times-the Taiwanese often do it-but we have to draw the line somewhere). I was overwhelmed and exhausted. But I went, praying for a better attitude.
And tonight I feel more peaceful than I have all week because I was able to listen (surprise! in my own language!) to the Lord's message by broadcast for the Asian people from President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks, as well as our Area Authority and Sister Dalton from the General Young Women's Presidency. I felt the spirit and felt more united with these people that I was feeling so alienated from; a cure to my recent ailment of loneliness. Now, if I had decided to skip today's area Stake Conference and instead decided to "rest" at home today, I would have felt no better, no more spiritually rested, which is what I really needed (and it carried me through one more meeting for me and 2 more for Scott!). And so now that I am spiritually rested, and our meetings are over, I can finally physically rest, too.