Self-discipline is the key to success | City Church in Tallinn

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7 – New International Version)

In fact, an episode of Downton Abbey got me thinking about self-discipline. There, in one series, the following scene unfolded. One of the castle’s servant girls had bought herself a typewriter and secretly learned shorthand. Finally, her typewriter was discovered, and her boss, together with other servants, wanted to know why she had bought it and what her purpose was with it. When she told the others that she wanted to work as a secretary in the future, the others looked at her in dismay.

A little later, the same maid was crying in the room while another maid tried to comfort her. She complained that her dream would never come true. At that moment, the chamberlain of the lord of the castle, Mr. Bates entered the room and asked what had happened.

The maid replied: “I suppose I just realized that it is not going to happen. I am not going to be a secretary. I’m not not going to leave service before I’m 60. You saw their faces. Well, they are right. Oh, look at me. I am the daughter of a farmer. I am lucky to be a maid. I was born with nothing and I will die with nothing.”

To this Mr. Bates replied: “Don’t talk like that. You can change your life if you want to. Sometimes you have to be hard on yourself, but you can change it completely. I know. “

It’s uncomfortable to be hard on yourself, right? To take time to pray, practice to play the piano, study the Bible regularly and not just read it. It’s not easy.

I also remember what Venus Williams said about discipline at the “10X Ladies” event hosted by Elena Cardone.

“I honestly believe discipline is freedom. When you have discipline you get what you want.

When you don’t have discipline you don’t get any of what you want. So you’re free to live your dream, you’re free to do the things you love, and then you start to come to love the discipline and then when you don’t have the discipline that’s when the anxiety sets in because you know you’re not paying the price.

And if you don’t pay the price, you get nothing. So you got to pay the price and then you have to have discipline and then the world is open to you,”

Aristotle has also said: “Through self-discipline comes freedom. “

According to the Cambridge dictionary, self-discipline is “the ability to make yourself do things you know you should do even when you do not want to.”

However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary gives such a definition of self-discipline – “correction or regulation of oneself for the sake of improvement”

According to the Oxford dictionary, self-discipline is “the ability to make yourself do something, especially something difficult or unpleasant.”

May God help us to discipline ourselves and do what depends on us.

Now, brethren, I exhort you, by God’s great mercy, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; let this be your reasonable worship. And do not be conformed to the present age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

Isn’t sacrificing our bodies akin to self-discipline? That you pick up the Bible and spend time renewing your mind, although it would be much more convenient to sit in front of the TV or scroll on Facebook or Instagram.

I wish we all had more self-discipline!

With blessing,

Sister Joy Nurme