Know Self-Control

This coming weekend I get to teach a workshop at our annual Men's Advance. I'm teaching on the topic of self-control.

Recently I put in a new light fixture in our bathroom, built & hung simple shelves in the garage, and designed, constructed, and installed a pair of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the living room. All three of these things confronted me with significant challenges, which I will summarize by saying: I got angry!

I have a history of being short-tempered. Not so much getting angry with others as getting angry at myself or at the things that I'm working on. Occasionally this impulsive pattern rears its ugly head again, and this recent series of episodes was a particularly vivid example of that. "What's wrong with me?," I heard myself thinking; "Why am I getting so angry so fast?"

One morning, after I had completed my projects, I was reading in Titus and came across this verse: "Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled" (Titus 2:6). As my eyes scanned these eight words on the page, this uncomplicated verse brought everything into focus for me: much of the frustration I had been making a place for in the recent days was an issue of (no) self-control. God had spoken to me. No angels singing, no visions of paradise, no lightning bolts or thunder--"just" a moment of revelation that brought conviction, peace and clarity: "I can chose to have self-control." I can know self-control.

Since then, I have had some bad moments, but increasingly good moments, too. Something IS different. I hung another light fixture in our bedroom, a project which really shouldn't have taken more than 90 minutes to complete, but instead required an additional trip to OSH, and which offered me a several specific opportunities to get frustrated. INSTEAD, however, I "kept my cool," and chose self-control. It really was that simple.

Now, as moments come up during which I feel that old, familiar impulse, I keep hearing that promise, in my own words: "I can have self-control." This is God leading me...and I'm grateful to Him when I say that, more often today than a couple weeks ago, I am choosing to respond in the way He is encouraging me--and not be led by the "old man" who so wants to have his way with me!