Self-Control:

Throughout my time of writing blogs, I have written about a majority if not all of the items that are a part of the fruits of the spirit.  I have definitely talked about love, joy (especially this year), peace, patience (because I struggle), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.  I have never really talked about self-control.  However, I am realizing that self-control is incredibly important, and it can help serve as a basis for a lot of the other fruits of the spirit.  

Self control is defined according to the dictionary as “the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires or the expression of them in one’s behavior, especially in difficult situations.” I loved this definition because emotions are a part of our daily life.  We are going to experience sadness, happiness, anger, frustration, and anxiety, maybe all in one day or within the same hour.  However learning to keep the same behavior within all those different emotions becomes really important.  It can be so easy to say the things that you can’t take back when you are angry, but that will not help prosper any of our relationships. 

Another thing about self-control is it helps us from doing the actions that we wouldn’t want to do on a regular basis.   There are many temptations out there for us people that the world puts in front of us that the Lord does not agree to.  I know for just me, there are the temptations of drunkenness, watching inappropriate movies, listening to inappropriate songs, and a bigger one for me lately is swearing and saying inappropriate words.  I was recently reading this book called, “Sexless in the City,” by Kat Harris.  She had a whole chapter talking about how living in this world lately has all been about instant-gratification.  We have the ability to get food whenever we want it through carry-out and frozen dinners without the hassle of cooking.  We have the ability to watch whatever show, the entire show, on demand on whatever streaming service we subscribe to.  We even have that ability with relationships through dating apps.  However, she does start to describe that when we start to look at people, especially in regard to dating, how they can best serve us, we can start to dehumanize them and only start to see them as something that can please us and make us happy.  The idea of self-control and patiently waiting to get to know people can help us better truly appreciate the relationships that we make in regards to dating and just overall, other relationships.  

Self control can also help us all feel better about ourselves.  I have these items that I try to complete everyday that I in my Christian planner like to call healthy habits.  These include things like exercise, devotional, practicing my memory verses, reading, writing, and making my bed.  These are items in my life that I think are important for my growth.  It can also be very easy to think that we don’t need to do these items.  There are days that I can wake up and not want to exercise.  I’m tired and don’t have energy.  Although, yes there are times when we should listen to our bodies and take a day off and not force it, the majority of times I end up feeling great after I do end up choosing to work out.  Sometimes, even though originally I felt I had no energy, after I worked out I actually had more energy because it got my body moving.  

Another healthy habit that I mentioned was my devotional with the Lord.  Yes I believe that a devotional should come from the heart.  A devotional should not necessarily be something that we just want to do in regard to check off our list.  The Lord will know if our heart is not fully in it.  However, just like in all things we may have some times in our lives when we don’t want to spend time doing a devotional.  There can be days when we may just want to continually watch television. I also, won’t lie, lately while I love doing my devotional, I am a bit unsure of God’s sovereignty.  If you read one of my more recent blog posts, you may have read that I am not sure where I am going or what God has in store for me, and it has at times been very hard to do my devotional when I am struggling to trust God.  However, when my self-control and dedication make me do it anyway, I am continually reminded that God loves me, and he does have a plan for me, even when I don’t always truly believe it.  

Self-control is definitely a basis for many of the other emotions.  It would be very hard to have any sort of patience without self-control.  Lately, I have had to really fight against my impatience and my fatigue in order to be the best teacher that I can be.  There are many times that I am not doing the best.  I am still incredibly tired, but I am learning more and more about how to do that and to continue to fight in my self-control.  The self-control in my classroom has helped me better keep my cool and has saved a few relationships with my students.  There have been times when I have not done this the best that I could possibly do, however.  I have definitely gotten impatient with a class and said something that I am not necessarily proud of, and have had to apologize to my class or students.  I am continually trying to grow in this regard.  

The good news is that self control does not have to be something that we have to fight for alone.  The Lord has the desire to help us through giving us the Holy Spirit that we have with us wherever we go.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  (1 Timothy 1:7).   The Lord has provided us with a spirit that can have a great amount of self-control.  Know that I am talking through this devotional, like in all things, these are things that I am continually trying to work on.  I don’t have perfect self-control.  I sometimes swear and speak profanity, even lately when I have been really trying to work on not speaking that way.  I write blog posts, one because I love it, but secondly because I am continually trying to grow as a person and as a Christian, and I know that reflecting and writing has better helped me to grow.  We all should take consideration on how we can continually grow in self-control, and we can all do that together.