If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it—how shortsighted to refuse correction. Proverbs 12:1

Understanding the importance of discipline is half the battle to a disciplined life. Most don’t understand that discipline is the guarantee to achieving the success they desire. Being self-disciplined means having the ability to control and motivate yourself to stay on track and do what is right. Self-discipline is a character trait we all want our children to have, yet some of us adults struggle with this as well. 

I can remember having to discipline myself for the first time when I got married. It was so easy it to sit on the couch and watch TV while the dishes piled up in the sink and the laundry piled up in the bathroom. I was only eighteen, but the dishes and laundry getting done was my responsibility. There was no mom in the back room to come out and clean up after me. I had to discipline myself to do the things I really didn’t love to do. (This was the same for my husband, but today, I am talking to us moms).

If you’re a stay-at-home mom (as I was at some points of my life), sometimes it’s tough to discipline yourself to get up and get moving. The housework just piles up and, no matter what you do, it never goes away. If you work outside the home (as I was at some points of my life), you’re in a constant struggle to “to it all”, leaving you exhausted and things still undone. 

Don’t save discipline for your children, we all need it. Discipline just means being in control or having things in order. If you feel out of control, you might need a little self-discipline. Unfortunately, it’s all up to you. Remember there’s no “mom” around to wake you up after the snooze button is pushed. But, you can do it. 

Lay out a plan to become better disciplined. Write down your goals and dreams, but realize there is no power in just writing them down. The secret to self-discipline isn’t in writing your goals down, it is in realizing how important the goal that you wrote down is to your life and the life of your family. Paul, in Corinthians 9:26 said, “I do not run aimlessly.” Paul ran with his eye on the prize. He ran always looking at what he wanted his end result to be. If you want the end result to be a happy family who loves each other and puts God first in their life, then your actions should reflect that end goal. On a smaller scale, but also important, do you want your house to stay clean and neat? Or to be healthier for your family? Everything we want to happen in our life will require some level of self-discipline for the end result to be acquired. 

Will you be perfect? No. None of us are, but each day we’ll get better at disciplining ourselves to stick to our goals. 

Tackle it like you would any other job—start with one out-of-control thing and conquer that one, then move on. Before you know it, you’ll feel better about yourself and your family will run like a well-oiled machine. 

“If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.” William Feather