By Natalie Boone

Discipline is a word with a mostly negative connotation. I work with elementary age kids, and I asked some 5th grade girls to define discipline and every one of them explained it in a way that referred to the consequences for ones actions, namely in reference to punishment. They were correct, but discipline defined according to 252 Basics (the elementary curriculum) is, “doing what you need to do so you can grow stronger.” Here too we see discipline explained as a consequence for one’s actions, but in a more positive light. The former definition refers to the times when we choose to do the wrong thing. The latter definition explains discipline from a proactive standpoint. The focus is on what you need to do— and choosing to do it.

For example, as a little girl, I vividly remember my brother stealing a pack of Bubbalicious bubble gum from a store. When we got to the car and my mom realized it, she immediately made him walk back into the store, apologize to the clerk, and pay for the pack of gum.

The discipline on my brother’s mind was the consequences that awaited him when we returned home (or even worse—when my father got home). The discipline on my mother’s mind, was a different kind. She knew the right thing to do in that situation. She had to have the discipline for herself (and my brother) to do the right thing and pay for the seemingly insignificant pack of gum. She could have been in a hurry. She could have even faced embarrassment. She could have even thought that $1 pack of gum was not a big deal for a big company. However she knew that by doing what she needed to do now, she (and my brother) would learn from it and grow stronger.

A few months back in Future Leaders, we studied the book of Titus. In Titus 1:8 when Paul is giving Titus instruction for leading the church in Crete, he tells Titus that church overseers “must be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” Paul is referring to the possession of one’s inner strength to control one’s passions and desires (NIV study bible). Paul recognized the worth of discipline in our daily lives. He deemed it worthy enough to be one of the first things mentioned to Titus and then repeated four more times in the first two chapters. He didn’t have the “its just a pack of gum mentality” that we can so easily fall into. “I just missed one quiet time. I just forgot to pray before one lunch. I really needed to sleep in this Sunday” …Although our God offers unlimited grace when we do fall short, we have to be committed to disciplining ourselves in the mundane, sometimes difficult things in order to live holier lives. If we can make proactive decisions to include “disciplines” in our lives, we can avoid some of the negative consequences we might face in the absence of discipline.