The means to maximizing your life …

Have you ever noticed how it’s the verbose preacher who preaches about controlling your tongue?

Or the obese doctor who warns you need to lose weight?

Or the editor who rambles on in his own lengthy editorials, or the hair stylist who needs one?

Have you ever noticed how the mechanic often has his own car on blocks in his front yard for far too long, or the boss who scolds you for being late never starts a meeting on time?

Or how we talk about loving one another but rarely ever host each other in our own homes? Or how we could put another missionary in the field for what is spent on production design for sermon series?

This Andy Rooney-ish list can go on ad nauseum, but the items all have something in common: a failure of self-discipline.

When we fail to edit our words, restrain our appetites, or practice what we preach, we fail to apply the most basic level of self-discipline.

God has enabled us to discipline ourselves in order to do our part in achieving all we’re capable of. Yet, we routinely fall short of that. Not because of any lack on God’s part, but because we’re simply too lazy to discipline ourselves.

Self-discipline isn’t a dirty word, or an old school idea. It is our means of maximizing our own contribution to the life God has given us.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline,” 2 Timothy 1:7.

So how could your life improve if you applied some (or greater) self-discipline to what comes out of your mouth? To your appetite? To your fitness? To your career? To your relationships? And, especially, to your faith?

Scotty