Creating a Legacy

The Carter Family Ten Commandments

1. We will follow God.
2. We will love, encourage, support, and care for each other.
3. We will obey, respect, and honor our parents.
4. We will protect the Carter name.
5. We will not lie.
6. We will be open, and communicate with each other.
7. We will show love and compassion to each another.
8. We will be a reflection of Christ.
9. We will be hard workers and do our best at all times.
10. We will be a family that prays.

We did a family devotion one night and my husband came up with this idea that we need the Carter Family Commandments. We asked our children to tell us what were some things that they thought God wanted us to do as Christians. Our middle daughter asked, "What does being a Christian mean?" We explained that it meant believing that Jesus was God's Son and that he died, but now He is alive and living in heaven with God. {Five year terms} She said, "Oh!", then she goes through our whole families names and says we are all Christians.

They told us things like being nice to each other. Not talking mean to each other. No hitting each other. No lying. No taking things that don't belong to you. The list just keep going on and on ~ you could imagine with a 17 year old, 5 year old and a 4 year old the conversations were running wild.

I wrote all of them down and then we talked about why God didn't want us to do those things. And that's how we came up with the Carter Ten Commandments. We placed every thing they thought God wanted us to do and everything they thought God didn't want us to do in a category. That's how our whole family participated.