Thursday Thoughts for Parents: "Self-Control: An Unappreciated Virtue"

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This post is based on C.J. Mahaney's sermon, Self-Control: An Unappreciated Virtue, given on Feburary 18, 2018.

 

Everyone’s heard the phrase, “Practice makes perfect.” So what do you practice a lot to be good at? Maybe it’s basketball or ballet. Perhaps it’s guitar or drums. Whatever it is, the reason you work so hard at becoming better is because you love doing it and because you know it will be rewarding in some way. Have you ever thought of other things that might require some practice? Sharing with your brother and sister takes a lot of practice and so does asking for things using your manners. For me, it took a lot of practice to eat broccoli!

Even though we work really hard to practice playing the guitar and our ballet moves, we always need help from others. On Sunday Mr. Mahaney talked about having self-control. He told us about self-control because the Bible talks about self-control a lot! It talks about how a person without self-control is like a city that doesn’t have any walls and is open to bad people coming in and causing all kinds of trouble. God calls us to practice having self-control so that we can defend ourselves against the temptations to lie or steal or be unkind to others. We use self-control to stop ourselves from sinning against God. But this kind of practice is one that needs A LOT OF HELP. We can’t just practice self-control on our own without someone to help us get better at it. Thankfully, we have God himself who has promised to help us every single day as we practice using self-control!

 

Read Galatians 5:16-17; 22-25 as a family and think about these questions:

  • Spend some time as a family thanking God for helping us every day.
  • Why do we want to practice using the Fruit of the Spirit with those around us?
  • Could you ever do all of these fruits by yourself?
  • Spend some time praying that God would forgive your sins against him and ask him for more help as you practice self-control.

 

[Post by Chad Hester]