For forty years, I’ve taught CCD classes to middle school boys.

And I’ll be honest—when I started, I thought I was going to teach them.

What I didn’t expect was how much they would end up teaching me.

Like most things in life, it started small. I said yes one year, then another, and before I knew it, decades had passed.

Along the way, I learned something important about boys.

Middle school boys hear “no” all day long.

Don’t do this.

Don’t do that.

Don’t touch that.

Don’t say that.

Don’t throw that.

Don’t hit your brother.

By the time they arrived at CCD, the last thing they needed was another adult standing in front of them with another list of rules.

So I decided to approach things differently.

I wanted to teach the Ten Commandments not simply as a list of things they couldn’t do, but as a vision of the kind of men they were becoming.

Because the Commandments aren’t just fences.

They’re directions.

They’re guideposts.

They’re principles that point us toward becoming men of character.

Instead of simply saying:

“Don’t lie,”

we talked about:

“Be trustworthy and respect the truth.”

Instead of:

“Don’t covet,”

we talked about:

“Be satisfied with what you have.”

Instead of:

“Don’t misuse God’s name,”

we talked about:

“Respect the gift of language.”

Something changed when we approached the Commandments that way.

The boys stopped hearing restrictions.

They started hearing challenges.

The question shifted from:

“What am I forbidden from doing?”

to

“What kind of man am I becoming?”

And boys understand challenge.

Over time, I rewrote the Commandments into language that connected more directly with their daily lives:

• Keep your priorities straight.
• Respect the gift of language.
• Take time to reflect on your gifts and blessings.
• Respect your parents and those in positions of authority.
• Respect the gift of life in all ways.
• Respect the gift of sexuality.
• Respect other people’s property.
• Be trustworthy and respect the truth.
• Keep your mind clear of impure thoughts.
• Be satisfied with what you have.

When they heard them that way, they listened differently.

Because these weren’t just ancient rules anymore.

They were practical lessons for becoming a better son, friend, teammate, husband, father, and leader someday.

One thing I learned very quickly is that middle school boys are experts at finding loopholes.

I remember one student in particular. Sharp kid. The kind of kid where you just know he’s going to argue contracts someday and probably win.

One evening we were discussing lying.

I asked the class:

“Is it wrong to lie?”

Immediately his hand shot up.

“Well… what if you don’t technically lie, but you don’t tell the whole truth?”

Suddenly the entire class was engaged.

We weren’t talking religion anymore.

We were talking strategy.

He gave an example:

“If my mom asks if I cleaned my room and I say, ‘I picked up some stuff,’ but I didn’t clean all of it, that’s not really lying.”

The whole class loved it.

They thought they’d discovered a loophole in the moral universe.

So I asked him a simple question:

“If somebody did that to you, would you feel respected or manipulated?”

And just like that, the room got quiet.

Because deep down, even middle school boys understand fairness.

They understand trust.

And that’s when something clicked for me.

The Commandments aren’t about God trying to catch us doing something wrong.

They’re about forming us into people others can trust.

When you look at them through that lens, the Commandments become remarkably relevant to modern life.

Young men today still need to learn honesty.

They still need self-control.

They still need respect for others.

They still need gratitude.

They still need integrity.

Technology has changed.

Culture has changed.

But human nature hasn’t changed nearly as much as we think.

The qualities that make a good man today are remarkably similar to the qualities that made a good man generations ago.

That’s why the Ten Commandments have endured.

Not because they are merely rules.

But because they point us toward becoming men of character.

After forty years of teaching middle school boys, I’ve become convinced of this:

Young men are not looking for fewer standards.

They’re looking for meaningful ones.

They’re looking for principles that help them navigate life, build trust, and become the men they were created to be.

The Ten Commandments still do exactly that.

Maybe now more than ever.