Having Discipline is Better Than Having Follow Thru

I know it's a little late to talk about New Year's Resolutions' but I am going to do it anyway.

Late last year I was sitting reading my Bible and came across a scriptutre that related to getting the body under subjection in order to get in shape for running a race. It said that there are many who run a race but only one person gets the prize. It went on to instruct that in order to be the one who wins the race to exercise as one who is striving for "the mastery" in order to win that prize.

When it hit me I immediately left my Bible and went to find my wife. I told her, "I've found what we are going to work on as a household next year. It will be to be disciplined in everything that we do." She is an awesome woman and she listened and agreed to back me on what I had decided for our household.

Last year I think I missed it. The instruction that we were working on for our household was to develop "follow thru character" because I realized that we had started a lot of things but failed to complete them. Well, we developed follow thru character but I found that we were still starting things - and even finishing them. But it was at the very last minute. One of the big examples of this was that we started a five hundred piece puzzle. We worked on that puzzle for a for a little while every few nights together and then that puzzle stayed in the corner for months until late November when we were on a mad dash to complete it. Yes, we completed it but it felt wrong that we were still living our lives in procrastination mode. It is not right.

So when I read that passage of scripture it occurred to me that if an athlete was training for a race; although he could start exercising every day if he takes a break and then tries to play catch up he will definately not win in his endeavor. Yes, it works when you are trying to complete a puzzle before the end of a year but this poor character is not good when pursuing other thing in life.

Discipline is being consistent and following a regimen or pattern. Discipline forces you to stick with a thing when it gets boring. Discipline has the element of "follow thru" already woven into it. If you are disciplined you will most definately finish because it is a crawl to the finish line but you are getting stronger in the process. So in my household we have decided to live in a place of discipline. We have decided to maintain our home in a place of discipline, we have decided to take time out to spend time together from a standpoint of discipline. It will build our muscle in whatever arena we are in. We will "exercise" as one striving for the mastery, yes, we will be successful in every endeavor of life because of discipline.

Are you after follow thru or discipline in your life?

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