For all the freedom that summer offers — for all the lazy mornings and late nights and drives to the lake — I welcome the steady, constrained days of fall. There’s something comforting about falling back into a routine, something secure.

Summer’s unrestricted schedule, when kids bounce in and out of doors and from their beds at all hours, leaves me rather bewildered. As someone who works from home, I’m never guaranteed how much I’ll get done. And I’m often at a loss for how to keep our youngest children entertained and out of mischief.

I mentioned how much I was looking forward to the start of school — with its predictable schedule — to a wise friend. “Freedom isn’t always as enjoyable as people expect,” she said, or something like it. Her words reminded me of the parameters for right living offered by God, such as in the Ten Commandments.

While we often seek the greatest freedom in our personal choices and affairs, believing that it will bring the greatest happiness, some constraints are necessary in order to secure true happiness. In a paraphrased version, the rules for right living found in Exodus 20:2-17 that lead to the greatest happiness go like this:

• Put God first, not yourself

• Don’t replace God with any lesser thing

• Use God’s name in prayer, not as a curse

• Take one day each week to rest and reflect on God’s goodness

• Respect your parents

• Don’t take an innocent life

• Save intimacy for your husband or wife — not someone else’s

• Don’t take what isn’t yours

• Don’t lie

• Don’t seek more than you need, especially if it belongs to others

These words have raised a lot of public ire in the last decade, including from people who want them thrown out of American courts and schools. We want personal freedom — the release from the constraints that limit our behavior. But good rules, not only protect us, they protect others.

There is security in putting God first, comfort and rest in reflecting on his goodness, goodness in heeding the words of wise parents. Here are safeguards for life and marriage and our homes. Here truth is honored; Greed and selfishness condemned. Most people, regardless of their spiritual practices, desire the same.

While I sometimes exercise the freedom to do as I please, I find my life is richer, my days more productive, my heart more satisfied, my relationships deeper, my regrets fewer when I embrace God’s guidelines rather than my own.

Meadow Rue Merrill writes and reflects on God’s presence in her ordinary life from a little house in the big woods of Mid-coast Maine. Her memoir, “Redeeming Ruth,” releases in May 2017. Find her at www.meadowrue.com