Yesterday, Saturday, I had the honor of hosting our Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, the Most. Rev. Prof. Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, in a one on one podcast-styled conversation. A lot of nuggets of wisdom were dropped and I will be expanding on a few of them in the next few weeks on my blog. I could literally write an entire book of all the wisdom he shared in that short interview.
Nugget number one was when he described himself as a man of discipline and further explained that most people construe a person of discipline as someone who is arrogant but that is absolutely not the case. The Cambridge dictionary online describes a person of discipline as someone who is “able to carefully control the way that he/she works, live, or behave, especially to achieve a goal.” Do you know that human beings naturally like to control others? So, when we meet a person who is already in control of his or her own life and has set/defined boundaries, we get upset that we cannot disrupt their flow or they will not bend to ours.
The bible has a lot to say about self-discipline and when you meet a person who has really mastered it, honor them. In Hebrews 12:11, we learn that self-discipline yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The Apostle Paul told the people of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 9:27 that he disciplines his body and keeps it under control, lest after preaching to others he himself should be disqualified. I humbly share this that anytime I messed up it was because I did NOT stick to my own principles and tenets and yes the outcomes were never good for me. I’m also on a journey to stay the course of being disciplined, however painful or unpleasant it might be sometimes, so I can experience the peace that comes with knowing you’re safe within those boundaries you have set for yourself and for others.
I pray for you this week that the Lord will endow you with the spirit of self-discipline so that you will not be like a city broken into and left without walls. (Proverbs 25:28). Let it be so and so it is in Jesus’ name. AMEN!
XOXO,
Lady Abena.