Skip to main content

Self-Control

             Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. (Proverbs 25:28)

Today’s thoughts follow along with those of July 21. When I consider the role of self-control in my life, I tend to see two possibilities. Either I am in absolute control over the every detail of everything I do or I am completely out of control. It’s a false dichotomy. And, of course, the reality is that, generally, no one else makes me do the things I do. I eat things I don’t need to eat and shouldn’t. I spend money on things I don’t need and shouldn’t get. I fail to pick up and put away all the stuff that clutters my house. The choices are mine. They might not be entirely conscious and volitional, but they’re mine.

But when we talk about self-control, we are discussing the effective choices we consciously make. Self-control means not doing things we decide not to do, and doing things we decide to. But it really means more than that. It means being the kind of person who does the things he/she decides and does not do the things he/she decides not to do. Consistently. There may be some instances of Herculean feats, but more often, he/she just does it.

It is the self-control that we develop in daily life that makes the big challenges possible. If we lack it, we have no defenses against being marauded by everyone and everything in life, because our boundaries/walls are broken.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more