A Songbook's Ten Commandments

Last night I was working on writing a devotional thought for a book of thanksgiving we are putting together at church. I will post those later however one of the thoughts I was writing has to do with the hymn Count your Blessings. I have an old songbook that my father used to own (once upon a time he was the songleader at church) that I was referring to. Well really it is not that old, the copyright is 1977. On the inside cover were listed a songbook's ten commandments. I thought some of you would enjoy these as much as I did.

1) Thou shalt not bend my backs together.
2) Thou shalt not mark on me.
3) Thou shalt not fold nor tear my pages.
4) Thou shalt not use me to hit the babies. (this one is my favorite)
5) Thou shalt not let the children play with me.
6) Thou shalt not throw me on the seat at the end of the song service.
7) Thou shalt not borrow me without returning me to my owner.
8) Thou shalt not use me as a fan.
9) Thou shalt extend my life with proper care.
10) Thou shalt use me often and understand with thy heart my words.

It is no wonder our kids don't know how to take of their books. We as adults apparently cannot even take care of a book we use (or used to use since the invention powerpoint) for maybe 30 minutes in church. And the sad thing is someone actually had to hit their baby once for someone else to think that one needed to be a rule.