Are you ready for some football? It doesn’t appear that the NFL was ready for what it got the first couple of weeks of the season. I confess, I am old school and still embrace the rule of law that guarantees us due process when charged with a crime. The way the media and society obsess over YouTube videos and other picture postings, innocence until proven guilty is being turned on its head! We as consumers should not tolerate this, but I digress.
What I find fascinating is the level of physical discipline that professional athletes must practice in order to compete at the level they do. Many of them are able to apply similar levels of discipline to the emotional and spiritual aspects of their lives as well but those athletes do not typically make the paper.
You do not have to be a professional athlete to struggle with inconsistent physical, emotional or spiritual disciplines in life. We see pastors fall from grace and CEOs mismanage the company’s pension funds. We see men struggling with alcohol and dads losing their temper.
Paul provides an example for us in 2 Corinthians, “No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”- 2Cor.9:27. I remember a friend of mine whose dad came home drunk too often and would proceed to go on a rampage through the house. He was “disqualified” as a dad for a window of time in my friend’s eyes. As dads, we are preachers, teachers and coaches that must not be disqualified in our kids’ eyes. The challenge is to be disciplined as men, husbands and fathers so the next generation will want to follow our example.
Tips to Be Disciplined:
- Physically – step up with a nutrition and exercise plan that will honor the temple of the Lord, your body;
- Emotionally – identify your weaknesses, the temptations that distract and get a battle buddy that will hold you accountable on those specific fronts;
- Spiritually – strengthen relationship with Jesus the Christ each day through time committed to prayer, scripture reading, worship and study of God’s word.
Prayer guide: Lord, thank You for the many gifts and blessings I enjoy, may I never take them for granted. Help me be disciplined to walk boldly in those gifts as the God-glorifier You expect me to be. By Your grace I will be a man, husband and father that my kids will want to follow. Amen
A faithful father is disciplined physically, emotionally and spiritually.
