Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Spirit of Self-Discipline

Posted by Tracy Wainwright at 9:58 PM
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Self-discipline. Oh my. Do I really have to go there? I guess since I started this, I’ll continue on until the end. I almost forgot. I covered love and power and then got distracted onto consequences. But I’m going to practice allowing the spirit of self-discipline to have control and return to finish this topic.

Self-discipline is a difficult concept. As parents we see that our children don’t have much self-discipline. I almost said none, but I saw an example of it just today. My son earned a time out for breaking a rule and decided to throw a screaming fit while in time out. I’m not sure how he thought this would make things better, but he’s four, so his logical thinking development is long from being fully developed. I let him know that his time out didn’t truly start until the screaming stopped, but this made no impact. He was not exhibiting self-discipline to stop crying. However, one mention of a spanking suddenly helped him access a spirit of self-discipline. The fit stopped immediately.

This was an opportunity for me to help my son experience self-discipline. (It wouldn’t have been if I’d had to actually follow through with my warning.) I find that I have multiple opportunities to exercise self-discipline every day. It may be in relation to making healthy food choices, doing laundry instead of checking email, or speaking in compassion instead of frustration. Giving up the will of my flesh to the will of God and spirit of self-discipline isn’t generally fun for the moment. The rewards, however, are far greater than not.

As I access the spirit of self-discipline I grow as a mom. I am much more peaceful. I am much more content. And the household runs much more smoothly. Within myself I fall short of exercising self-discipline. But with God providing the spirit of self-discipline and me practicing more and more to choose to access that spirit, I can make disciplined choices, reap the rewards of those choices, and better teach my children to access the spirit of self-discipline, which will benefit them in the long run.

1 comments on "The Spirit of Self-Discipline"

Leigh Anne Langston said...

This is a lesson we will continue to learn for the rest of our lives.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Spirit of Self-Discipline

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Self-discipline. Oh my. Do I really have to go there? I guess since I started this, I’ll continue on until the end. I almost forgot. I covered love and power and then got distracted onto consequences. But I’m going to practice allowing the spirit of self-discipline to have control and return to finish this topic.

Self-discipline is a difficult concept. As parents we see that our children don’t have much self-discipline. I almost said none, but I saw an example of it just today. My son earned a time out for breaking a rule and decided to throw a screaming fit while in time out. I’m not sure how he thought this would make things better, but he’s four, so his logical thinking development is long from being fully developed. I let him know that his time out didn’t truly start until the screaming stopped, but this made no impact. He was not exhibiting self-discipline to stop crying. However, one mention of a spanking suddenly helped him access a spirit of self-discipline. The fit stopped immediately.

This was an opportunity for me to help my son experience self-discipline. (It wouldn’t have been if I’d had to actually follow through with my warning.) I find that I have multiple opportunities to exercise self-discipline every day. It may be in relation to making healthy food choices, doing laundry instead of checking email, or speaking in compassion instead of frustration. Giving up the will of my flesh to the will of God and spirit of self-discipline isn’t generally fun for the moment. The rewards, however, are far greater than not.

As I access the spirit of self-discipline I grow as a mom. I am much more peaceful. I am much more content. And the household runs much more smoothly. Within myself I fall short of exercising self-discipline. But with God providing the spirit of self-discipline and me practicing more and more to choose to access that spirit, I can make disciplined choices, reap the rewards of those choices, and better teach my children to access the spirit of self-discipline, which will benefit them in the long run.

1 comments:

Leigh Anne Langston said...

This is a lesson we will continue to learn for the rest of our lives.

 

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