Discipline

Richard Foster writes in Reasons To Be Glad that ‘The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The disciplined person is the person who can live in the appropriateness of the hour. The extreme ascetic and the glutton have exactly the same problem: they cannot live appropriately; they cannot do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The disciplined person is the free person.’

And as John C Maxwell writes, ‘One of the best ways to develop discipline is to delay gratification.’

In a world where ‘instant’ is expected, this may seem to be a ‘too hard to do’ concept. But it is from my own personal experience, as I have laboured in the pursuit of my goals, that at times the fulfiment of those goals has taken longer than expected. But it is during those delays, throughout the duration of the process, that discipline has been conceived and character has often been birthed.

Gratification’s delay has in fact been a blessing and not a curse to me. The more I have practised it the more appreciative I have become of every progression that I have made in my life, my finances, my family, my spiritual walk and my Job.

Try it. You will not be disappointed. Delay is not denial. It is enstrengthening.

And as the good book says, ‘They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.