30 Days of Character Development - Self-Control

As was probably noticed if you read this blog, I took the weekend off and have decided that is OK!:)
I can get a little OCD about my 30 day blogs but in light of good character development I felt I need to give myself a little break. Weekends are always very busy so I decided to keep my blog posts for weekdays.

I am so proud of my sweet niece, Beverly, for embracing these character development blogs. If you haven't seen her blog, check it out at http://nprfloridagirl.blogspot.com.

So we are continuing to look at "Self-Control"

We tend to loose our "Self-Control" when we are stressed so today we will look at how to reduce stress in your life so that self-control will be easier to obtain.

Stress is basically TOO MUCH - too many things to do, to many people to help, to many problems to solve and not keeping boundaries in your life. The American Psychological Association conducted a stress survey and gave us the top five stressors in life:

1. Sick family member
2. Monday
3. Your own health
4. Children
   
5. Work

So how do we reduce stress in our lives -

1. Take an inventory of your life every 6 month and ask yourself: What needs to be eliminated? Are there areas of your life that you have over committed to. What is sapping your energy and can it be changed? It takes self-control to not over commit.
2. Are you setting good boundaries or do you feel responsible for everything and everybody in your life? Another name for this is "control." Do you need to let some things go that you are trying to control? or possibly delegate them to someone else? It takes self-control to not be over controlling
3. Do you need to rest? Are you putting aside some time to rest, reflect, sleep and exercise or in general take care of yourself? It takes self-control to slow down.
   
4. Take some time for self-examination. What areas do you need to work on ( some anger issues, anxiety issues, just speaking before thinking?) Take a look at yourself and if there are areas to work on start now and if you are really serious get an accountability partner to help you. It takes self-control to develop discipline in our lives. It takes self-control to admit we have areas in our lives that need to be worked on.
5. Take a look at your spiritual disciplines. Are you developing good spiritual habits in your life? Do you have a regular time of study, prayer and worship? It takes self-control to have create spiritual disciplines in your life

Most people are so busy knocking themselves our trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to what they want to do. Anonymous

1 Peter 4:1-2
Since Jesus went through everything you're going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you'll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.