Self-Control
I don’t have a lot of self-control. Too often I allow the little things in life to make me mad and upset. The other week someone came into my room on a Monday or Wednesday, I think it was — either way, it was one of my busy afternoons with class solidly from 1-5 p.m. I got back to my room, tired after a long day of class. I walked into the bedroom to find my mattress off my bed with my sheets, pillow, and blankets strewn around the room. A little prank… It was nothing that couldn’t be fixed or resolved in a few minutes.
As I picked up the mattress and bedding, I noticed that my main blanket was missing. It was a hand-woven blanket made out of Alpaco wool that I got in Bolivia on a missions trip a few summers ago. It wasn’t in the room. I walked into the bathroom to find it heaped in a corner of the shower… soaking wet. I’m not going to lie - it frustrated me a lot. Actually, that’s an understatement. It made me mad.
I couldn’t understand the reasoning behind doing something like that. What was the motivation? Why would someone be destructive like that? Who would be immature enough to first of all “terrorize” (as my roommate put it) my bed, and then leave a hand-woven wool blanket in a running shower?
Though all of this may very well be something to get mad at and would lend reason enough to be frustrated, nothing justifies the anger that I felt from that. I was thinking about that this morning — for some reason, Galatians 5:22-23 came to mind… “The Fruits of the Spirit.”
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…
Self-control was the one “fruit” that God reminded me of… or the lack thereof that I had for it. How do I obtain self-control, I thought to myself. I reread the passage and those verses that I could recite on any given day — “the fruit of the SPIRIT is …self-control…”
You don’t get the fruit of the Spirit without the SPIRIT, right? I had forgotten that. I just want to encourage you, my brothers and sisters. Just as I cannot demonstrate self-control and love for people who do unkind and inconsiderate acts without the Spirit in me, neither can we demonstrate those fruits without Him. Don’t forget that.
Published on 22 Oct 2007 at 10:57 am.
1 Comment.
Filed under Real Life Issues, Thoughts.
Very good insight and a great practical lesson! Thank you for being honest and for sharing.
Fiona on 23 Oct 2007 at 11:50 am.