Impress these commandments on your hearts

After seven months of thinking, praying, and pinteresting, I finally finished our frame of family rules/values.

I wanted something more than the 10 commandments but with the same spiritual value and to include verses about God's will for our lives that often get over looked.  I wasn't trying to reinvent or oversimplify the 10 commandments.  So here are the top seven (in no particular order):

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them who you sit at home an when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  Deuteronomy 6:6-9

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it "Love your neighbor as yourself."  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.  Matthew 22:37-40 (Jesus quoting Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18)

He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of  you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thess 5:16-18

Notice I didn't include "Love your neighbor as yourself" or the three ways we are to love God (heart, soul and mind).  Lack of space prevented me from including these two valuable points.  But I rationalized that walking humbly, giving thanks, acting justly, being joyful, praying continually, and loving mercy encompass tangible ways we can love our neighbor and God.  At least that was my logic.

As far as the font, I googled "chalkboard font",  freehanded the lettering with a pencil, and finalized with a black paint pen.  I tried to get Callen's footprint, but it was a complete failure.  So I opted to leave out the hand and foot prints.  Frame was $10 at Wal-mart.

Inspiration from the following blogs:

From This Glorious Day blog

From Next to Heaven blog

Miller creation