I was using some great hand lotion the other day – Everyone Lotion – and I just happened to notice the directions. It said, “Use Freely and Enjoy”.

How do you think our current world vision would look if one of the Ten Commandments was – Use Freely and Enjoy?

What a wonderful outlook for life that would be. No – “thou shall nots”, No – “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain”, But instead – Use Freely and Enjoy.

Regardless of which version of the Ten Commandments you look at, the majority of them have a “shall not” in it. In the Catholic Version, which is the one I was originally taught, only two don’t have the word “not” in them. (Keep holy the Sabbath and Honor your father and mother.)

Would it be easier to take the underlying message and good ideas of how to live in a society and how to have self-growth if the suggestions were written in a positive way? That way the focus would be on the positive actions instead of restricting negative actions.

If the commandment of “Thou Shall Not Kill” was instead “Love All” how would we react when faced with the situation where we were debating an action that might seem like killing someone was justified. If you are in the situation where you are trying to justify killing someone, would you be less likely in that situation if the other person also had as her commandment “Love All”. Can we change the dynamic and change the energy if we focus on the things we want to create instead of restricting the things we don’t want to create? It goes to the old saying of it is easier to get bees with honey than with vinegar.

With that as the idea, I believe we would have a much different world if our Ten Commandments were more like life suggestions on the ways to improve ourselves and improve our world. I would rather use the name “Ten Suggestions” to take away the judgment and punishment aspect of the energy associated with “Commandment”. Again, I believe this “lighter touch” will pay dividends in the execution of the suggestion.

So let’s try these alternatives on for size.

The Ten Suggestions

• You are part of a wonderful loving and powerful universe. Use freely and enjoy.
• Know yourself as peace and joy.
• Know all intelligence and all beings as wondrous and abundant. Speak of all of creation well.
• Every day is beautiful and wonderful. Be in gratitude for it and keep it holy.
• Honor your father and your mother, in whatever form they take.
• Honor and love all humans. Hold them in the highest regard just as you view yourself. (Yes, this is a paraphrase of what Jesus taught. He is right. We should live this more!)
• Create what you need from the abundance of the universe.
• Know yourself as Love, Loved and Loving.
• “Be impeccable with your word.” (To quote don Miguel Ruiz from his book The Four Agreements. He is right. We should live this more, too!)
• Be abundant and compassionate with all you meet.

Try these Ten Suggestions for a while. Use them freely and enjoy!