Household Rules to Change the World

Almost every family has household rules. Even amid the variances of culture and nationality, families around the world learn to establish a set of rules and guidelines by which each member will follow for the betterment and flourishment of their families. Regarding the establishment of healthy and thriving family relationships, there are many psychological and sociological studies which evaluate not only the significance of setting household rules, but the significance of which rules to set. Despite the ideal these rules promote, the reality of our world permits imperfect relationships and, as a result, many of us have been harmed by broken family relationships. However, it is my hope to discover the unbelievable inherent power within us that shines through whatever backgrounds we may have come from, whatever family circumstances that have shaped our view of the world, and whatever family-related tragedies that have caused us pain. We find this transformational power when we discover the truth that lies within these habits and when we use that truth to influence not only the way we raise our future families, but the way we create a family out of the various people inhabiting the world around us. Throughout this next series, as we discover the importance of each of these “household rules”, I hope that we will begin to reflect upon how these habits not only enrich our relationships with our closest circle of family and friends, but lead us to cultivate deeper relationships with those throughout the world beyond us. We may seen, then, that the habits we imbed in the way we teach and lead our families have a greater significance in the way that we carry out our lives. With each of these rules, we may be enlightened to the way that they fortify and adorn our perception of the vast world beyond us. I have chosen each of these rules to embody not only the relationships we hope to have with our own families and close friends, but also the relationships that will bridge national, ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, or gender differences, and that will humbly combat and wholly eradicate the deepest of embedded oppressions.I have focused on eleven “household rules”:

1. Always tell the truth.
2. Keep your promises.
3. Use kind words.
4. Do your best.
5. Say “please” and “thank you”.
6. Laugh often.
7. Try new things.
8. Look after one another.
9. Forgive and forget-- or, let go.
10. Act out of love.
11. Never give up-- or, dream big.

For each of these rules or habits, we will explore a core truth that establishes an ideal for the way we should treat both our closest circle of family and friends and also those we may never come to meet. These truths embedded in each of these household rules will do more than expose our habits in the relationships with those we know, but they will illuminate the hope we carry to make the world a better place. By becoming familiar with the truths in the these household rules of ours, we may see the love we share encompassing our closest friends and family expand to include those we have not yet met nor may ever come to meet. But, understanding the truth within the habits we create for ourselves will dissolve the line that separates our family from complete strangers, allowing our love, empathy, kindness, and compassion to reach the depths of the world. Then, the more we see our actions concerning the betterment of our own family and friends become synonymous with those concerning the betterment of people we have never met before, the more we will see the world change and grow. And, once we start to connect the truth of our habits with its influence on the world around us, the more these rules become not just habits that we teach our own children, but habits that we pass on to children of future generations.