In today’s changing world, people tend to do things without caution. Behaviors that I still remember as child were wrong, are now being overlooked and even sometimes accepted. This is because people now believe we live in the “jet age” and so anything goes. This is where self-control comes in, as an individual we need to have or develop self-control so that we don’t join the wagon. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, even when you know it is wrong.
Even though Jesus had all of God’s power at His fingertips, He chose to control that power time and time again. We bring glory to God when we learn to control ourselves.
Why do you think there are bars or thick glass between the animals and the people in the zoo? A wild animal has wild instincts. It has two very strong urges: it wants to eat, and to protect itself. If a wild animal, such as a lion, meets a person he will most likely attack the person because of these urges. The lion might be afraid or he might be hungry! Wild animals cannot control their urge to attack. That’s why it is not safe to be near them unless there is a strong barrier between you and them. God created people to be different from wild animals, though we have urges that seem natural to us we are designed to control them.
WHAT IS SELF-CONTROL?
Self-control is the ability to manage your actions, feelings, desire and emotions. It is essentially being in control of one’s own mind rather than the mind being in control.
Self-control is for sound judgements that means identifying preferable from pleasurable in every situation and avoiding temptation. Self-control is what you build up, develop, create and learn by controlling your behavior repeatedly. We should regard self-control as a skill, it is not a character trait or a thing you have to have that lets you control your behavior. (Or a thing that not having it prevents you from doing so.)
A man who can’t control himself is like a city whose walls are broken down. – Proverbs 25:28
SELF CONTROL is:
- What makes you wake up very early in the morning as a working mother to prepare the kids, prepare breakfast, lunch and drop them off at school before 7.30 am because you don’t want to be late for work.
- What makes you burn the midnight candle as a student because you need to pass your exams.
- What makes you, obey your parents, teachers, elder ones and school rules as a child even when you think they are saying the ‘’odd things’’.
- What makes you resist the urge to eat more chocolates and stick to your exercise routines because you need to shed that weight.
- What makes you, keep quiet and walk away when the urge to gossip comes.
- What makes you, as a couple tolerate and forgive each other when disagreements arises.
- What makes you as child, resist the urge to fight but report the bully when you are been bullied.
- What helps you resist temptation as a Christian.
SELF CONTROL, YOU NEED TO GROW IT.
If someone says, “I have no self-control over my drinking or smoking, or eating sweets or whatever,” it might be asked, “Are you well practiced at resisting your urges or opportunities to use or to overeat the wrong things?”
If sometimes we don’t succeed, we keep trying and resist discouragement, like getting back on a bike if we tumbled!
“Learning that urges are time-limited, and they will crest and subside if we stall and divert the thoughts to something else is what matters most.
HAVING SELF CONTROL AS A CHILD.
As a child you have parents and teachers to help guide you and train you in behaviors that are good, as you grow older, you are supposed to get wiser and be able to make better decisions.
A child needs to know when to study, do house chores, play and complete other task that he or she may have. When you can control something you can see, it will help you learn to have self-control over things you can’t see.
SELF- CONTROL IN THE THINGS WE SAY.
Part of self-control is controlling what we say. We should not speak every thought that crosses our mind. For many people, the most difficult speech to control is gossip. This is speaking unkindly about one person to another person.
Let us take a look at this instance, Take a bag of feathers. Go stand on a street corner on a windy day and shake out all the feathers. Wait about an hour. Then go collect all of the feathers. It’s impossible! ,when we tell secrets about another person, the person we told will tell another person and so on there is no end to how far that secret will spread.
SELF CONTROL WHEN DOING THINGS
There are so many good things for us to enjoy in this world but they are not to be over-done. It takes self-control not to over-do something, even a good thing. There are some things that are good in small amounts, but bad in large amounts e.g. sleeping. This brings in the need to have self-control and observe moderation in all that we do.
Conclusively, self–control is a fruit of the Spirit. We open ourselves up to danger when we lack it. We should learn to show self-control whether as a child, an adult, a parent, a teacher, an employer, an employee, a leader etc.
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