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Fathers Living a Disciplined Life

By Tom Bushnell

The Lord has been impressing upon me the importance of fathers, like myself, living a disciplined life.

-An overseer.. "must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity..." (I Timothy 3:4); likewise deacons must be..."good managers of their children and their own households. (1 Timothy 3:12). We can further see that temperance (self control) is a mark of spiritual maturity (1 Timothy 3:2)

Why should we desire to live a disciplined life? Out of thankfulness to God for what He has done for us we should make every effort to live a disciplined life. Self control is part of the "fruit of the Spirit" mentioned in Galatians 5:22. Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2) and from others. By God's grace our relationship with God is mended. Having the grace of self discipline in our lives helps us to maintain sweet fellowship with those closest to us.

A lack of self control in one area is indicative of a lack of self control in other areas. There are many areas where living a disciplined life can make a tremendous difference in our walk with and witness for the Lord, as well as our relationships with others.

In a marriage, attention to detail shows our wife that we care. An observation my wife and I have made is this: "careful" people are full of care for others. A "careless" person is only thinking of themselves and could "careless" about others.

Self control is of paramount importance if you wish to ..."live with your wife in an understanding way" (1 Peter 3:7)

In child training the most important character quality we can have is to lovingly and consistently train, correct and reprove our children. It takes self discipline to train the precious little gifts Our Heavenly Father has entrusted to our care. Often it is easier just to sit in a chair and not deal with attitudes we see in our children. However, God tells us in Proverbs 29:17 "correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." If we want our children to learn self discipline, then we must be self disciplined.

Living a disciplined life helps us to have more peaceful relationships with others. It means being on time (or calling as soon as we know we are going to be late). In business it means doing what we said we would do, when we said we would do it With neighbors it means making every effort to "live at peace with all men."

Temperance helps us to control our "flesh", particularly food, anger and sexual activity. We need self control in all areas including the tongue (James 3:2).

The grace of a disciplined life is a gift from God that we need to grow in. We can work with the Holy Spirit in our lives by practicing self denial and putting others first. (Philippians 2:3)

Today, right now, is a good time to yield our lives to the Spirit's call, picking up our cross and following Jesus.

Jesus is calling us men to be men and lay down our lives for our wives, children and friends. Consider what Jesus has suffered for us. Can't we deny ourselves out of thankfulness to Him?