Self-discipline: The Key to Mental Health
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Heb. 12:5, 6, NIV.
Scott Peck begins his book The Road Less Traveled with the thought that “life is a series of problems.” He then suggests that “discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems” (p. 15). “Problems,” he continues, “do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit” (p. 30). That’s why self-discipline is the key to mental health.
Unfortunately, our lives sometimes resemble Todd’s undisciplined life. An only child, indulged and spoiled, he was, at 14, hanging around with the wrong crowd and beginning to violate the law.
One Saturday night after his parents went to bed, he took his father’s car keys. He and his friends rolled the car out of the garage and down the street, started it, and went for a joyride.
Another time Todd stole a gun. After he was caught and arrested, the judge was lenient and sent the boy to the Advent Home Youth Services, but told Todd that if he failed the program he would be sent to juvenile detention.
Todd spent nine months in the program and was doing well. One day at public school he met a girl who talked him into running away with her. They spent several days and nights on the beach. One night during a storm they broke into a beach house for shelter. The owner caught them. Arrested, Todd found himself sentenced to three years in juvenile detention.
Eighteen months later I received a letter from Todd. In it he said, “I have found Christ and am learning to love Him. . . . I realize the wrongs I have done and I am sorry for them. . . . When I get out of jail I will be completing high school and going on to college to become a psychologist and help teenagers who are like me.”
Todd didn’t want the discipline of being sent to a juvenile detention facility, but it taught him that if he didn’t discipline himself, another authority would.
None of us likes discipline, but for our own good—for our mental and physical health—God sometimes has to discipline us with the consequences of our actions so that we will learn the importance of self-discipline.
God disciplines you because He loves you and wants you to learn to discipline yourself. Thank Him for that, and then ask yourself, “In what area of my life do I need more self-discipline?”
Scott Peck begins his book The Road Less Traveled with the thought that “life is a series of problems.” He then suggests that “discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems” (p. 15). “Problems,” he continues, “do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit” (p. 30). That’s why self-discipline is the key to mental health.
Unfortunately, our lives sometimes resemble Todd’s undisciplined life. An only child, indulged and spoiled, he was, at 14, hanging around with the wrong crowd and beginning to violate the law.
One Saturday night after his parents went to bed, he took his father’s car keys. He and his friends rolled the car out of the garage and down the street, started it, and went for a joyride.
Another time Todd stole a gun. After he was caught and arrested, the judge was lenient and sent the boy to the Advent Home Youth Services, but told Todd that if he failed the program he would be sent to juvenile detention.
Todd spent nine months in the program and was doing well. One day at public school he met a girl who talked him into running away with her. They spent several days and nights on the beach. One night during a storm they broke into a beach house for shelter. The owner caught them. Arrested, Todd found himself sentenced to three years in juvenile detention.
Eighteen months later I received a letter from Todd. In it he said, “I have found Christ and am learning to love Him. . . . I realize the wrongs I have done and I am sorry for them. . . . When I get out of jail I will be completing high school and going on to college to become a psychologist and help teenagers who are like me.”
Todd didn’t want the discipline of being sent to a juvenile detention facility, but it taught him that if he didn’t discipline himself, another authority would.
None of us likes discipline, but for our own good—for our mental and physical health—God sometimes has to discipline us with the consequences of our actions so that we will learn the importance of self-discipline.
God disciplines you because He loves you and wants you to learn to discipline yourself. Thank Him for that, and then ask yourself, “In what area of my life do I need more self-discipline?”
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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