Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Schoenleber Family Slogans

The Slogans We Live By is a collection of sayings and proverbs that the Schoenleber family tries to pattern their lives after. The collection is culled from a perspective informed by the Bible and the heritage of our family. It was begun on March 3, 1996, inspired by a radio broadcast of Focus on the Family the day before.

When Meredith, Marty and Aubre were young, I actually paid them to memorize these in groups of five. My hope was that they would not only help me to pass on some of the values and heritage of our family but would also protect them by providing some simple guides for decision making in the future. I hope they are a blessing to readers of the blog and perhaps inspire you to come up with your own method for passing on your family values to your children.

1. Live for an audience of ONE.
2. The WORD works
3. Prayer empowers.
4. It is always right to do the right thing.
5. You will never regret time spent on your knees.

6. God is not in a hurry.
7. Give your word rarely. Keep your word always.
8. The best thing your Father will ever do for you is love your mother.
9. Be filled with the Spirit and have fun.
10. Hate sin. Love people.

11. Your Father and Mother think you are wonderful gift from God.
12. There is never enough time to do something right but there is always enough time to do it over.
13. Find out what God wants you to do and do it with all your might.
14. You never had a better idea than God. And you never will.
15. Success in anything is doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.

16. God will never leave you nor forsake you. (cf. Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)
17. Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you. (Joshua 1:9)
18. A soft answer turns away wrath; but a harsh word stirs up strife
. . . and a man of wisdom makes knowledge acceptable. (Proverbs 15:1-2)
19. Listen to your father’s instruction and don’t forget your mother’s teaching. (Proverbs 1:8)
20. Your Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from your Bible.

21. Always give your best, even when your best isn’t enough. (cf. Colossians 3:17)
22. Remember to remember the greatness of God.
23. It always too soon to give up on God.
24. Only date someone God says you can mate.
25. To obey is better than sacrifice. (1 Samuel 15:22)

26 The day will never come when you have more experience in life than your Father and Mother.
27. Never do anything you would be ashamed to have your mother or father know about.
28. When swimming with sharks, don’t look like bait.
29. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you,
and some days the bear just swallows you whole!
But that’s OK. God is still God and you are still His.
30. Never go to bed without your father’s blessing.

5 comments:

Halfmom, AKA, Susan said...

mart - even with glasses, the contrast is not sufficient or the font is too small maybe for me to be able to actually read your list easily

Llama Momma said...

Wow! That's a lot of slogans! We just have two:

"whitlocks work hard"

and "however it turns out is just the way we like it!"

(The latter is especially helpful when I'm trying out new recipes...)

ChosenRebel said...

It is a lot of slogans. But it was/is a great way to train your children. They made some money too!

The really gratifying part is when your son goes away to college and calls you up and asks, "Dad, could you send me a fresh copy of the schoenleber slogans. I find myself repeating them to my friends all the time." That was a great day.

I like your slogans though.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Marty! Those are great slogans. I think I may steal some (many) from you. You and Newsong are in my prayers.

ChosenRebel said...

My son quoted #26 appreciatively to me this past Friday. It is wonderful when a plan comes together!