Feedback to 'those commandments!'

I have received some wonderfully creative responses to the challange of reframing the commandments so I thought I'd share some of them having received permission from the authors:

Mary wrote:
1. The Lord God is one, all embracing, all religions, all peoples, the Cosmos. He is everything that is and isn’t, therefore mystery. All we know and don’t know, therefore mystery.

2. Be creative and imaginative; write, sculpt, draw, paint, sing, compose, play an instrument, dance with joy.

3. Remember thought is matter and matter is energy. Be positive rather than negative.

4. Remember to keep every day, however spent, holy; that is, complete and worthy of the highest ideals.

5. Honour your father, mother, family and nation, all people and all species, the planet and the cosmos.

6. Seek peace. Love the unlovable as well as the lovable.

7. Sex is a gift and a necessity. Use it with love and wisdom.

8. Share what you have, be generous.

9. Be honest in all your dealings and relationships.

10. Show gratitude and be thankful.

Pam wrote:
1. Remember and acknowledge the mystery that is God within everyone and everything you know and don’t know.

2. Remember that God is beyond containment and beyond any image you have.

3. Remember to bestow your blessing on everyone and everything in your environment and to speak with kindness.

4. Remember your body is wonderfully made and treat it with respect.

5. Remember with thankfulness your parents who gave you life and reward them by being the best you are capable of.

6. Remember your responsibility to enrich and endow the lives of others.

7. Remember to honour the intimacies of marriage and family.

8. Remember the abundance of the earth and the rights of all to share in its plenty.

9. Remember to speak and act always with integrity and truthfulness.

10. Remember that greed diminishes and insults the goodness and generosity of God.


Patty wrote:
ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' Do remember that God is my best friend, always to ask for help, and to say thanks to when I find something, or just want to appreciate a beautiful day.

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' Do remember that God is complex so there isn’t any point in trying to copy him, he’s just awesome, do try to remember that He also made me, and apparently I too am awesome(I can’t make anything in my body without him, and he made me in his image, right?)

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' Do have a bit of respect for Him. Mouth wise =Zip it. *My hardest challenge!

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' Do make the time once a week to relax and reflect, and if it’s church, then be sure to take something of value spiritually away with you, and leave a little something too.

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' Do love your parents, too easy, but also understand that as parents; they unwittingly gave me my greatest gift, of life, and they are human. Appreciate them every day, living or not.

SIX: 'You shall not murder.' Do help others, and share what you can with them, in every way. Help enrich their life, and not take away things that might disempower them. Do encourage, not criticise, do not kill ideas, or hope, or courage. Do enable people to step beyond themselves, and help them grow as a person, and they might just do the same to you. :)

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' Do be faithful, in a loyal and loving way, both mentally and physically.

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' Do have original ideas, and be prepared to do the hard work yourself, and not take someone’s else’s anything: thoughts, stories, plot lines, concepts.

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.' Do tell the truth, at all times. Be honest, especially with yourself, you’ll sleep better.

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.' Do celebrate and share your own possessions, and life, your home and family, and friends. There’s little point in living an envious life, it just makes you sick.