Marriage from A to Z

“Everyone Needs Some Discipline”

     You want to exercise consistently, you want to eat right, you want to lose weight, you want to save a certain amount of money and pay off some bills, you want a great marriage  and you want to please God more.  It  all sounds great but the one ingredient that you must have is some SELF-DISCIPLINE.  It’s also known as SELF-CONTROL.  Last week’s topic was “The Best Rewards.”  Well if you want to win in the race of life and gain some rewards, you have to have some Self-discipline.

    Self-discipline can be defined several ways, here are a few definitions: 1) Training to act  in accordance with rules.  2) Activity, exercise or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training 3) The ability to motivate oneself inspite of a negative emotional state.

     I love the third definition.  We must learn to motivate ourselves to do the right thing inspite of a negative emotional state.  That means regardless of what’s going on around you, you must control yourself to do the right thing.  Inspite of how tired you may feel, you must push yourself to exercise and get your body up and moving. Inspite of how you may want to tell that person off, you must control your tongue. Inspite of someone who is trying to get you to do wrong, you must choose to do right.

     Discipline takes hard work and willpower but be encouraged and know that it also takes time to develop.  It requires developing attitudes that do not come naturally. You have to train yourself to eat better, exercise, save and make better choices.   Self-discipline is all about building the will to say NO when a powerful appetite inside of you screams yes.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS WITH DISCIPLINE

We must channel our desires, appetites and weaknesses toward God.  He is the only one who can help us to control ourselves.  Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Pray that God will help you to discipline yourself.  Try connecting with a friend who is willing to  hold you accountable.

Reference:  I Corinthians 9:24-27, Galatians 6:23

Until next week . . .

Carolyn