Mark Millican: The ‘Teen’ Commandments

Published 12:30 pm Monday, July 31, 2023

Advisory: This column has Christian references.

Ah, the halcyon days of summer: hot, humid and too short a time for the youngsters among us preparing to go back to school. Long gone is the time when children got three months off in the summer and didn’t return to classrooms until after Labor Day. (Murray County Schools, however, does wait until after the holiday dedicated to those who work.)

Recently while cleaning up a room to be wallpapered I ran across an old copy of the Teen Commandments. (My former neighbor and friend Charles saw me at the hardware store buying supplies for this project and told me — in jest, I hoped — that I’d better go ahead and call a divorce lawyer. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.)

But I digress. With school set to start in just days, perhaps a look at this revision of the original Ten Commandments might be helpful to some students. Of course, it will be up to parents and grandparents to clip them out since many teenagers do most of their reading on their phones, I surmise.

So I did some research. Turns out there is an older version of the Teen Commandments that were extolled by singers of yore Paul Anka, George Hamilton IV and Johnny Nash. The lyrics include:

1) Stop and think before you drink.

2) Don’t let your parents down, they brought you up.

3) Be humble enough to obey (you will be giving orders yourself someday).

4) At the first moment, turn away from unclean thinking.

5) Don’t show off while driving (if you wanna race, go to Indianapolis).

6) Choose a date who would make a good mate

7) Go to church faithfully (the Creator gives you the week, give him back an hour). My opinion: This certainly sounds like the 1950s when the spiritual life lived by many was marked exclusively by church attendance and not whether a Christian “walked the talk” during the week. In all fairness, however, that could be spoken of any generation.

8) Choose your companions carefully, you are what they are.

9) Avoid following the crowd; be an engine, not a caboose.

10) Even better, keep the original Ten Commandments.

By the way, a woman named Nancy Becker is given credit for writing the lyrics. In later decades, another version of the Teen Commandments appeared. Although they are posted on several different websites, the ones below were found at wholesomewords.org.

1) “Don’t let your parents down; they brought you up.” (Reminds one of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, wherein he advises, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the Earth.”)

True story: Many years ago there was a senior couple who owned little and used wood to heat their home. It got to the time in their lives where other people had to bring them firewood, and also go buy groceries for them. One Sunday in church, the man got up in the middle of a sermon, walked to the piano and began banging on the keys and singing an off-key hymn that was barely recognizable. This was quite amusing to all present, and perhaps only a few realized he was “making a joyful noise unto the Lord” and not to us. They had a son in his 30s, but he was embarrassed and shamed by his parents’ poverty and senility, and never visited or did anything for them. One day while mowing the grass, he fell dead of a heart attack. When I heard the news, the verse above was immediately quickened in my spirit.

2. “Choose your companions with care; you become what they are.” From the letter to the church in Corinth: “Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good habits.”

3. “Be master of your habits or they will master you.” Ouch, as many of us can attest.

4. “Treasure your time: don’t spend it; invest it.” Good advice in so many different areas.

5. “Stand for something or you will fall for anything.” True. Be that as it may, be careful for what you stand for.

6. “Select only a date who would make a good mate.” Otherwise, why would you date them? The answer is self-explanatory.

7. “See what you can do for others; not what they can do for you.” Thank you, as well, President Kennedy. Philippians 2:3 is a stumble verse for many of us.

8. “Guard your thoughts: what you think, you are.” Look at it this way — the things I think, say and do today are who I am tomorrow.

9. “Don’t fill up on this world’s crumbs; feed your soul on the Living Bread.” We can receive instruction for any of life’s problems, or crumbs, in the Bible.

10. “Give your all to Christ; he gave his all for you.” Not much I can add to this, only that Jesus desires to be your friend who sticks closer than a brother. However, he’s not pushy but waits on you.

So our kids and grandkids will be back in air-conditioned classrooms soon, and will have to make scholastic and even moral decisions every day. My prayer for them and our schools is for God’s hand of protection to be upon them, a great year with growth and thoughtful consideration of the Teen Commandments.