Discover, I did. Self-control is just what it sounds like: Control of the self. No one else will do it for us, Not even God. There are two things we must always protect and control: our thoughts (mind) and our heart (emotions).
All behaviors start in our minds. We let in thoughts through memory triggers and our brain’s powerful auto-flow. These thoughts create or utilize pictures and windows from our history to either inspire us or shut us down.
Like the brilliant animated movie Inside Out captures, our emotions can control which memories are triggered and can lock in windows in our mind that can ultimately shut us down. At least it feels that way. It feels like we don’t have control.
We do. We ultimately have the final say as to what pictures are allowed to be utilized and created. We can choose what we think about. Any unwanted windows can simply be closed. Another one will need to be put in its place.
But we must ultimately believe that our autoflow is simply random. If we believe that every thought that happens to come to our mind is somehow sacred or providential we begin to lose a battle.
For the creative it is very hard to believe. For when creating many of those random thoughts and ideas turned out to be very good ones. And what randomly came into our mind as we were creating had a destiny.
So we assume that each new thought today must also carry with it the weight of Providence. We are wrong. Not every thought is productive. Some can actually be distracted and even destructive.
How in the world can we begin to discern between those that are life-giving and those that are life taking? That is the process we must begin. Slowly but surely we must weed out and take captive all death.
We must us are not only the roots of thoughts but also their projected fruit. For we know and must recognize that ideas germinate all reality. There is nothing that was not first an idea.
So we recognize the sovereign power of ideas. We also recognize that in their infancy many ideas were not properly understood for their ultimate destination. In other words, destructive ideas we're not stopped in the idea stage.
Perhaps all of human history is the trial of ideas. If we search hard enough we can find almost every idea lived out in expression. Some good, some destructive - even though sometime well intended.
How can Limited, human beings possibly know the full outcome of their ideas? Certainly there are unintended consequences we cannot foresee. And perhaps we must act anyway. But what responsibility are we under to first discern and appropriate?