Control yourself, or someone else will!
Why self-control is better than state-control
Watch our Truth in Two to find out why (full text included).
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Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat
FULL TEXT
I have to admit a serious concern at the beginning of a new year: I have little control when it comes to sugar. There I’ve said it. I love cakes, cookies, and candy. You name it, Butterfingers, Skittles, caramels, vanilla frosting, sugar cookies, or white chocolate. I am addicted. Yes, I know that my obsession could have dire consequences (think diabetes). So, I try to control myself when it comes to consuming sweets, but you know how it is for an addict. One lick of the cake mixer beater or one taste of cookie dough and I can’t stop eating.
My addiction to sugar reminds me of what some folks call “New Year’s Resolutions.” We decide we must exercise more. So, we buy the equipment or sign on to a gym membership. But by the time Valentine’s Day candy comes out, any commitment to exercise stops after we unwrap the chocolates. Our problem, of course, is control. And here is a principle for all of life: control yourself or someone else will have to control you. If I can’t stop eating sugar by myself, the doctor might make me go on a diet to stop eating.
The Christian statesman, Edmund Burke spoke to our problem with control. He said,
“People are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.”
Did you get that? Control yourself or someone else will have to control you. You may be upset with government regulations; but perhaps those regulations exist because you can’t regulate yourself. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, President of the Comenius Institute, trying to control himself (and his sugar intake).
Our Creator breathed free will into every one of us hooligans. Holy Spirit yields the fruit of self- control as we submit that very will to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The daily battle is real. Sugar, words, choices, relationships, use of time, anxiety, fear, temptation surrounds. I wake up so many days crying out for help in the darkness. Miraculously, I am lovingly heard, seen, known, and taught step by step. Thankyou for the Edmund Burke quote and your pithy words, flicking me so often on the back of my head, Mark.