20 ‘Thou Shalts and Shalt Nots’ for Marriages

Published January 12, 1990.  Many of us still remember the late Elder LeGrande Richards as an esteemed leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not long ago someone sent me Elder Richards’ Ten Commandments of Marriage, written in 1972. I thought you might enjoy them as much as I have.

First, the Ten Commandments of Marriage for Husbands:

1. Remember that thy wife is thy partner not thy property. 
2. Do not expect thy wife to be thy wife and wage earner at the same time. 
3. Think not that thy business is none of thy wife’s business. 
4. Thou shalt hold thy wife’s love by the same means that thou won it. 
5. Thou shalt make the building of thy home thy first business.
6. Thou shalt cooperate with thy wife in establishing family discipline. 
7. Thou shalt enter into thy home with cheerfulness. 
8. Thou shalt not let anyone criticize thy wife to thy face and get away with it, neither thy father nor thy mother, nor thy brethren nor thy sister, nor any of thy relatives. 
9. Thou shalt not take thy wife for granted. 
10. Remember thy home and keep it holy.

And here are Elder Richards’ Ten Commandments of Marriages for Wives:

1. Honor thine own womanhood, that thy days may be long and happy in the house which thy husband provideth for thee. 
2. Expect not thy husband to give thee as many luxuries as thy father hath given thee, after [thy father’s] many years of labor and economy. 
3. Forget not thy virtue of good humor, for verily, all that a man hath will he give for a woman’s smile. 
4. Thou shalt not nag. 
5. Thou shalt coddle thy husband, for verily every man loveth to be fussed over. 
6. Remember the frank approval of thy husband meaneth more to thy happiness than the sidelong glances of many strangers. 
7. Forget not the graces of cleanliness and good grooming. 
8. Permit no one to assure thee that thou art having a hard time of it, neither thy mother nor thy sister nor thy maiden aunt nor any of thy kinfolk, for the [Lord] will not hold thee guiltless for letting another disparage thy husband. 
9. Keep thy home with all diligence, for out of it will come the joys of thine old age. 
10. Commit thy ways unto the Lord thy God, and thy children shall rise up and call thee blessed.