The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Erin M. during the 2007-2008 League.
Your parents tell you specifically, "Now Johnny, I want you to follow these rules because they will protect you!" But your parents are out of town for the weekend, and you are at your Grandma's house free of all parental control. What do you do?
The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines blessings as, "a thing conducive to happiness or welfare." The 10 commandments are as follows: ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' 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.' THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' SIX: 'You shall not murder.' SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.' TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'"
There are several blessings to the 10 commandments. If you honor your parents in the Lord, you will live long upon the earth.
Common sense plays a large part in the 10 commandments. Do not kill, or you will go to jail. Do not commit adultery, or you will have a terrible marriage and ruin the sanctity of it. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. If you obey the Lord's commandments, you will be blessed period. You will be blessed with a wonderful relationship with your Savior, you will stay out of legal issues, and you will live long on this earth and prosper.
Deuteronomy 28:1-3 says, "If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country." There you have it! The Lord loves it when we obey! It's not that complicated really. We are all going to make mistakes, and we are all going to sin. But if we give our absolute best effort to obey the Lord and all of His commandments, and we ask for forgiveness when we do disobey, the Lord will forgive us. That in itself is a blessing! There is no reason for us to not try to obey the Lord! He will bless us with His love and grace and mercy that are irreplaceable by any earthly possession. The Lord has set up these basic commandments for our safety. He told us there things to keep us out of the trouble that will inevitably come out of them. He's trying to look out for you! But you have to listen!
Did you go straight for the goodies at your grandma's house? Did you stick to the two cookie rule or eat till you couldn't? If it was me, I ate till I couldn't any more and I spent the rest of the day sick. Your parents set up these rules to help us avoid the troubles that come with the crime. Will you listen?
