- Be committed to God all your life and in all you do.
- Keep the promises you have made to God and others and respect everyone.
- Rest and renew at least once a week and come and visit Me.
- Love, honor, and respect your parents even when they are old.
- Respect all lives.
- Honor all your commitments and relationships.
- Take only what’s yours.
- Be truthful and just in all situations
- Treat your neighbor as yourself.
- Nurture a good relationship with your neighbor and help them protect what’s theirs.
We live in a world that good behavior is known by comparing them to bad ones. We know not to kill because we have been told not to kill, not that we have been told all lives matter. We have been told not to commit adultery not because we have to honor all commitments. We have been told to protect our neighbors because we want them to treat us as we treat them.
During the Holocaust, there were people who saved others’ lives, not because they followed the commandments “thou shalt not kill”, but because they kept the only commandment we all need to keep: love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Psychology will tell us teaching our children positive ways of doing things are always better. Telling them what to do is always better than what not to do. Doing what we should all be doing is better than fighting for what we haven’t done. We don’t have to defend ourselves if we haven’t killed anyone. We don’t have to bear false witness if we can tell the truth. We don’t have to witness the tears of our parents if we can honor, love, and cherish them.
Let us practice the Ten Commandments because they are meant to create better relationships with God and one another. Let us make the things we can do to improve our relationships, and not focus on what we shouldn’t be doing. Let us keep them out of love and not out of fear. Let us practice the Ten Commandments not because we will loose heaven if we don’t, but live in heaven now when we keep them.