Today is a normal day. Do you find these ‘normal days’ easier? Are you controlling your portions more? If you are following me in the SCF plan, we are 12 days along. One thing I know (I’m sure you will agree), following any plan takes discipline and self-control.
“No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, put painful: nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” –Hebrews 12:11
Self-control has become taboo. We think it takes away our “freedom” of expression—our freedom of being. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Without self-control we are:
Unfulfilled. We may never finish school or complete a project. We fail continually to reach our goals—(weight loss, weight gain),etc.
Unaccepted in society. Perhaps there is a drug addiction or a behavior that keeps us from interaction. Do you know how many people are addicted to medication, drugs, food, rage?
Have no convictions. There are no safeguards around our personal life. It may be represented in reading trashy romance novels or wearing revealing clothes, or even watching morally degrading television shows.
Each of these areas is a lack of personal discipline. It isn’t always fun to work hard—that’s why it takes discipline.
Several weeks before I was scheduled to take my board exams, I went on a mission’s trip to Mexico. It was during a very hard time. My father-in-law was dying. My husband and I were going to visit the church my parent-in-law’s had started, and been a part of for many years. My best friend was on that trip with me. We love to visit Mexico and spend quality time talking. However, it was not a trip I could indulge my will. I only had a short time to study and review all of the material I had studied during my many years of schooling. My suitcase consisted of clothes and books. I had to discipline myself to study every chance I got. It wasn’t fun. I wanted to be a part of the group and I wanted to talk with my friend. But the goal of passing my board exam was priority.
It took discipline to exercise self-control so I could pull myself away and study. I had to keep headphones on to block out the conversation around me. It was hard work. However, when I received the letter of congratulations telling me I had passed my board exam with a 96% I felt very satisfied.
Has there been a time in your life when you disciplined yourself to achieve a goal? When you accomplished that goal, how did you feel?
Maybe you have never been able to exercise self-control. In Galatians 5:22-23, self-control is the one fruit that all the other fruits hang on. Without self-control we will never have true love, joy, peace, longsuffering, etc. Without self-control love becomes violent passion, joy become excess indulgence, and peace is passivity. As Christians our self-control comes from the power of the Holy Spirit working in our life—as a result of our discipline.
We all have times in our life when we lack discipline. That is the reason my scale showed numbers I didn’t like—no self-control with portions. I want to be healthy but I also want to discipline my flesh to have self-control. I know that self-control will give me the freedom to live in peace with my bathroom scale.
“While freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, freedom, in fact, is the final reward of discipline.” –Rhonda Kelley
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