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Dr. Kenneth Cooper is the Fitness guru who's defined Americans' ideas about exercise for 30 years now. He is actually the inventor of "aerobic exercise" as we know it. Dr. Cooper, in discussing the need to keep up one's fitness regimen even in the winter months, said this: "Fitness is a journey, not a destination."
What he meant is that it's critical to never convince yourself that you've arrived where you should be. On the contrary, you should keep up your fitness regimen year-round. Yet, he said, so many people become less active in winter, and as a result they gain weight and lose the muscle mass and conditioning they've worked so hard to attain.
The Christian life, too, is a journey, not a destination. Our regimen includes prayer, study of God's Word, personal evangelism, and personal obedience. And: Once we convince ourselves that we've 'arrived,' or once we convince ourselves that the going is 'too tough' right now, and that we'll pick it back up at a later date, we immediately begin to lose the benefits of the discipline at which we've worked so hard. We must make sure we keep up our spiritual regimen year-round.
Source: Bottom Line/Personal, 11/1/95
Topics/Tags: Discipline; Perseverance
James Peterson was what you might call a "chronic embezzler." He stole thousands of dollars from one employer, got caught and paid it all back, then did the same thing at his next job. Eventually he ended up in a Houston prison serving an eight-year term.
In prison, though, Peterson met Jesus Christ. After becoming a Christian, he entered an 18-month voluntary program run by Prison Fellowship. Called InnerChange, the program "immerses prisoners in a Christian environment day and night, including worship, work, and courses in subjects such as personal responsibility, parenting, and financial management.
Halfway through the program, Peterson met an unexpected roadblock to his progress: parole! The parole board informed him that, thanks to his good behavior, they were about to trim 10 months off his sentence and grant him early release.
In an unprecedented move, Peterson wrote a letter to the parole board the next day turning down early parole. "It is important to me that I stay to complete the program so that I will be taking one small step in proving to myself that I have changed and I am no longer a double-minded man," he said.
Peterson said that his decision was finalized by a letter he received from his ex-wife, which read in part: "Don't you think it's about time you finished something in your life?"
Peterson now says he wants God to "complete the transformation he has begun in me" so he can face the outside world again without slipping into habits of lying, stealing, and failing to keep commitments. "There is nothing I want more than to be back in the outside world with my daughter, Lucy...However, I see this as a small price to pay in comparison to the price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross for us. Maybe my decision to stay here will help others to see that God is real, that he is the truth, and he changes people."
Source: religiontoday.com, 5/13/98
Topics/Tags: Discipline; New creature
From Aesop's Fables:
THE BAT AND THE WEASELS
A Bat who fell upon the ground and was caught by a Weasel pleaded to be spared his life. The Weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The Bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was set free. Shortly afterwards the Bat again fell to the ground and was caught by another Weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The Weasel said that he had a special hostility to mice. The Bat assured him that he was not a mouse, but a bat, and thus a second time escaped.
Aesop's moral: "It is wise to turn circumstances to good account."
To escape his dilemma, the bat needed only to point to the obvious. Like the bat, we have some very simple, usable, even OBVIOUS tools at our disposal in life's dilemmas—tools like prayer, scriptural meditation, discipline, righteousness, boldness, and childlike trust. As we become willing to use these tools, we too can "turn circumstances to good account."
Source: SAGE Digital Library
Topics/Tags: Optimism; Attitude; Boldness; Discipline
Henry David Thoreau once remarked that it takes about three years before a man's pants begin to fit him well. The same might be said of God's armor. When you first resolve to wear the full suit of armor God has issued, it is not unnatural for it to feel awkward. If you will persist in wearing, though, it WILL grow on you—God guarantees it.
Source: Martin H. Franzmann, in "The Minister's Manual for 1994," p. 34.
Topics/Tags: Armor; Discipline; Persistence
Dr. Stanley Coopersmith, in a study of normal middle-class boys, found that, consistently, children have higher esteem and become more successful and independent when they have a home where consistent discipline is present.
It's been said that children need two pats on the back: One high enough to encourage them when they do right, and one low enough to discourage them when they do wrong.
Dorothy Nolte says, "If a chid lives with fairness, he learns justice."
The only way to be fair to our children is to praise where praise is appropriate, and to discipline where discipline is appropriate.
Source: Charles Swindoll, "Growing Wise in Family Life"
Topics/Tags: Parents; Discipline; Children; Learning
There was a person who was asleep one night in their cabin when suddenly the person felt a definite calling from the Lord. In the vision the Lord told the person that God had a work for that person to do, and showed the person a large rock near the cabin. The Lord explained that the person was to push against the rock with all their strength. This the person did, day after day. Every day the person would pray to be able to accomplish the task. For many years the person toiled from sun up to sun down, their shoulder set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all their strength. Each night the person returned to the cabin sore and worn out, feeling that the whole day had been spent in vain.
The person started showing signs of discouragement, saying, "I have been pushing against this rock for a long time and it hasn’t budged. I am never going to move it. Why kill myself over this?" And the person thought, "I’ll just put in my time, giving just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough. My prayers don’t seem to be working, so I will put little effort into that as well."
And the person planned to do that until one day the person decided to pray once more, this time in utter hopelessness, to the Lord, "Lord, I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. I have prayed persistently. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock a half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
To this the Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, your strength spent, thinking you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your physical strength has greatly increased. You determination and resolve has been heightened. Your prayer life has been deepened. You would have had none of these things had the task come easy. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven’t moved the rock.
"But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and to trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."
Source: Stephen Portner, Lightstreet United Methodist Church near Bloomsburg, Penn., USA
Topics/Tags: God, faithfulness of; Persistence; Discipline; Determination
Chiseled in a wall of Chester Cathedral, England...
"The Ideal State"
Give me a good digestion Lord,
and something to digest;
Give me a healthy body Lord,
and sense to keep it at its best;
Give me a healthy mind, O Lord,
to keep the good and pure in sight,
which seeing sin, is not appalled,
but finds a way to set it right.
Give me a mind that is not bored,
that does not whimper, whine or sigh;
Don't let me worry overmuch
about that fussy thing called "I";
Give me a sense of humor, Lord -
give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some happiness in life
and pass it on to other folk.
Source: Curtis Stamps, via 'Lection List'
Topics/Tags: Prayer; Discipline; Character
“The Dynamics of Discipline”
There is an athletic apparel company based in South Florida called DISCIPLINE MOTIVATIONAL WEAR. This company has designed some great looking and “self promoting” T-shirts that bear a logo that reads: DISCIPLINE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE. Of course their meaning is that their company makes the difference—but when they display these shirts at races, athletes buy them like hot cakes because that is why they push themselves to run, bike, and swim day after day. They really believe
DISCIPLINE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
Does discipline really make the difference? Bob Brubaker writes, "It does—if you are disciplined enough to be disciplined." Are you willing to build discipline into your life, even at a price?
Source: The Cornerstone FAQS — Monday – December 7, 1998
Topics/Tags: Discipline; Motivation
Bob Brubaker writes: "The road of discipline is much easier with more than one."
Ecclesiastes 4:9 (NIV) 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:
"I don’t know how many times my friend Joe Salwan and I have commented: “If I didn’t know you’d be here waiting to run with me I would have slept in this morning.” Having another person hold you accountable, running the race together, will make a real difference."
Source: The Cornerstone FAQS — Monday – December 7, 1998
Topics/Tags: Discipline; Mentoring; Accountability; Friendship
"Discipline begets abundance. Abundance, unless we use utmost care, destroys discipline. Discipline in its fall pulls down with it abundance."
-- Anonymous
Source: Leadership, Vol. 3, no. 4.
Topics/Tags: Discipline; Abundance
Browse By Topic D Discipline