Life Is The Only Game In Which The Object Of The Game Is To Learn The Rules

Why do we have rules? Why are they so important to our society? Rules are known by many different names such as laws, commandments, guidelines, regulations, edicts. But they all amount to roughly the same thing. A set of principles set up by a person or people to maintain order. I was talking to Andrea today and we were discussing the importance of rules. Too often we think of rules as restrictive and keeping us from doing the things that we want to do. That is not true though. If we didn't have rules, we would be without direction. When we follow the rules it leads us to have more freedoms. Cecil B. Demille, the director of the movie The Ten Commandments" said:

We are too inclined to think of law as something merely restrictive - something hemming us in. We sometimes think of law as the opposite of liberty. But this is a false conception...God does not contradict Himself. He did not create man and then, as an afterthough impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free...then gave him commandments to keep him free. We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them - or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God. God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice.

Rules help us to make sense of the world. Whether they be national laws, rules of a game, or personal guidelines that we follow it is important that we stick to them. It is through following these rules that we find our greatest freedoms.