Every religion, Christian or otherwise, is built on the foundation of rule-following.
People often wrongly assume that following rules means giving up free will. However, this isn’t the case when following God's authority. Individually, God gives us a lot of rules, but they're all meant to serve a greater good and better our lives. As Christians, family rules and parenting tips are extremely valuable, though we undervalue them in our society.
In this article, we’re going to discuss the importance of following rules and some essential rules for Christian homes.
Throughout the Old Testament, there were many famous rules, such as the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses. God still wants us to follow many of these rules today.
By God’s laws, we come to realize our sinfulness and see Jesus as a Savior. Furthermore, they provide us with a clearer understanding of what God's righteous demands are, which cannot be achieved without Jesus.
Scripture foresees the coming of the Messiah, and Christ fulfilled God’s law by coming into the world. Knowing that Jesus paid for everything with his life allows us to obey God with delight.
Obeying Jesus is not for earning anything, but rather because he was a suffering servant whose ways are good, and thus his rules are for our benefit.
Our failure to obey is often the result of our own faults. Keeping rules is therefore challenging. However, we should try our best to obey God’s rules, repenting when we fall short, for they will only better us and our lives. If we chose to live without the rules of the Father, we wouldn’t get very far.
The same is true for the rules within your family unit.
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” To fulfill that sentiment, here's a list of rules for every Christian home.
If behavior house rules are to work properly, all family members need to understand and respect them.
By doing this, children receive clear messages about what's okay and what's not. The number of rules you set will depend on how well your child comprehends and remembers them.
It’s also hard for a parent to consistently enforce lots of new rules within their own family unit. So it’s important to have a set number of rules that your children clearly understand. A great way to do this is by making the rules visible for everyone in the family to see, like keeping a chore chart in the kitchen.
Some common rules to set for behavior at home include:
Rewarding your children for good behavior is also important. One way to do this is by creating a reward chart for your young children and older kids to help them track their progress.
If you want to avoid your little one's tantrums, let your child know your expectations before entering a building or event.
Before going somewhere, tell your child how long you plan on staying there. Enforce that they shouldn’t yell indoors, and they should play with other kids nicely. Then tell them when it’s time to go, that they shouldn’t whine. Make sure to enforce the consequences, such as time out, taking away toys, etc., if they disobey these rules.
Some public behavior rules could include:
Try not to give them a hard time if they slip up every now and again. And always make sure that the punishment fits their age group.
Long church services can be really difficult for children.
Sitting through a long service and listening to someone talk for hours might be monotonous for a child. Since children need so much visual stimulation, this makes sense.
Therefore, it is a wise idea to explain the value of church and worship to your children early on. Making them feel included in family worship and family prayers at home can be a helpful way to achieve this outcome.
In order to keep your child well behaved at church services, here are a few rules you can use:
Something that can help your children behave at church is explaining how holy communion works beforehand.
Here are some rules for you to help establish clear boundaries: