Home Rules

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” ~ Ezra Taft Benson

We share our home with another family who are also Christians, but of another faith. We recently all went on a month-long vacation together to Seattle and back to Tennessee. While there we went to the Houston Temple. We sat in the waiting room together and talked about what the temple is, what it's used for, and its significance. Everyone felt the unique peace available there.

We all agreed it would be wonderful to have that peace at home. In order to achieve that, we came up with the rules below. Over this past week our home HAS been peaceful! The peace isn't just having "quiet". It's a core-deep kind of peace. It's a peace that brings on contentment with an undercurrent of joy.

Everyone has had to make changes, but the rewards have been so much greater than the "sacrifices".

I'm sure we'll have glitches here and there, and we've already had to remind each other occasionally - "Mom, remember that today is library day." But overall, it's going very well.

The below is our rules (including the scripture). Everyone in the household signed it as a contract. (The consequences for breaking the contract were also agreed on.)

D&C 88:118-121

… Seek ye diligently and teach one another
words of wisdom;
yea, seek ye out of the best books
words of wisdom;
seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

Organize yourselves;
prepare every needful thing;
and establish a house,
even a house of prayer,
a house of fasting,
a house of faith,
a house of learning,
a house of glory,
a house of order,
a house of God;

That your incomings may be
in the name of the Lord;
that your outgoings may be
in the name of the Lord;
that all your salutations may be
in the name of the Lord,
with uplifted hands unto the
Most High.

Therefore,
cease from all your light speeches,
from all [crude] laughter,
from all your lustful desires,
from all your pride
and light-mindedness,
and from all your wicked doings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In order to achieve the above, each person living in this household agrees to:

* Have a “game night” every Sunday afternoon.

* Bake treats together once a week.

* Have a “family movie night” every Friday.

* Go to the library together every Tuesday.

* Speak in low tones.

* Grant kindness and mercy to others.

* Forgive quickly.

* Keep their word.

* Pray together every day.

* Be a friend to every member of the household.

* Read only that which they would be comfortable reading in the presence of Jesus Christ.

* Listen to only that which they would be comfortable listening to in the presence of Jesus Christ.

* Watch only that which they would be comfortable watching in the presence of Jesus Christ.

6
* Keep an orderly home by:
* Eating food only in the kitchen
* Being responsible for their chores
* Picking up after themselves
* Making sure that Socks is the only dog allowed in the kitchen or Greg's office. (There's a bit of a story behind that one.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~