In my thoughts and writings, I continue to explore my childhood relationships with Evangelical Protestantism, standing as I did and continue to do so as a committed Latter-Day Saint. The teachings of the former have always occupied a sort of ambivalent, sometimes even a love-hate place in my life. Lately however, I have developed an increased appreciation for the positive side of what I learned from my boyhood association with the little church at Glenwood, Washington.
I think that the emphasis there on believing and living the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule was significant in reinforcing for me a major value foundation in my life. They were and are really important to me. I have always accepted them as basic and unbending as to how I should conduct my life. They define basic moral values and provide a standard for successful and caring interpersonal interactions.
Let me repeat them:
The Ten Commandments
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet. [Exodus 20]
The Golden rule
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
[Matthew 7:12]
I am grateful for those in my youth who so strongly accentuated these basic virtues.
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