Notes: The Skill of Self-Discipline


Taking control of your parenting
Part 6
Steve Elzinga


Teaching your kids Discipline

Self-discipline

1. There is an upfront cost

2. There is the hope of a good payoff

3. The whole thing is self-imposed

What are your greatest fears if your child grows up lacking
self-discipline?

1. That your child will 
waste his/her life.

Proverbs 10:5 A wise youth makes hay while the sun shines, but what a shame to see a lad waste his opportunity.

 

 

2. That your child will 
lose his/her life.

Proverbs 5:23 He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

 

The two most common mistakes:

1. Too strict

Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

2. Too permissive

Proverbs 29:19 Sometimes mere words are not enough discipline is needed. For the words may not be heeded.

What kids need to acquire 
self-discipline:

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

 

1. Kids need to know the cost.

2. Kids need to know the payoff.

3. Kids need to know the connection between the two.

1. Character

Hebrews 12:11 Being punished isn’t enjoyable while it is happening it hurts! But afterwards we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character.

 

James 1:2-4 (TLB) Whenever trouble comes your way, make it an opportunity for JOY. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow...so let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

 

2 Peter 1:4 And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.

2. Glorious living

Ephesians 1:11 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Final Note: There is really no such thing as self-discipline.

Three things needed:

Accountability

Encouragement

Power

2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self discipline.