Self control is the greatest exercise in self denial and loving others.
Because I love others, I am practicing self control.
Because I need to control my actions, I am denying myself of what I want.
Delayed gratification produces maturity.
Any thoughts out there? Please comment!
How does self control equal loving others?
ReplyDeleteBecause sometimes we want to say the truth so much. We want to say "YOU ARE WRONG! or THAT'S NOT TRUTH! or YOU ARE GOING ON THE WRONG PATH!. There are times to speak up and stop a friend from doing something dangerous, yes, like going down a dark path or stepping in front of a train or letting them drive if they had a few drinks. But other times, we know, we KNOW we cannot say what we want to say.
ReplyDeleteI thought about this earlier today. I imagined a little kid at the park, rushing by and almost knocking someone over in there exuberance. The kid would be embarrassed. They might mumble a short "uh, sorry" before running away to finish their game. The adult person in me, thinks the adult would stop the kid, bend down and tell them everything they did wrong there, and correct them, and then make them say they are sorry in the way they want to hear it .
But .. would that please my being or would it bring justice or would it be teaching the kid? I thought about it, and realized it would only be self serving. I would leave feeling very smug that things turned out in my way, the way I wanted the kid to apologize, and I told them how wrong they were. It would only be serving me. Just me. And I don't think that is right. I think the way to have handled the situation would be to smile, love the child IN their exuberance, and say be careful. BEcause kids will be kids. We cannot fit them into our little mold we want them to fit in to make us happy.
I totally thought about this today as I washed my hands in the ladies room at Deibert Park. Sometimes people have to walk the journey they are supposed to walk, and sometimes Jesus HAS US WALK THAT PATH for HIS reasons, that we cannot fully understand or fathom, because we are not Jesus. We are Not Jesus. and Exercising self control to love that child -in his running and jumping even though you want peace and quiet- is self control. Because giving someone time to think about the problem, and how they need to handle it might bring maturity much faster, and better, than if we bent down and wagged our finger in their face and told them what they did wrong and how they should have handled it.
Wow. It's late. I'm tired. And I usually don't respond so strongly to posts.
Good post, Katie! Totally went with what I pondered today.