The Gift of Inner Discipline

There is an inner person living in my home-space who is constantly battling for attention. This naughty creature frequently demands more attention than she should.
“Grow up!” I command myself silently. Like a parent who is caught off guard by a child with a belligerent attitude, I firmly expect maturity in the recesses of my own heart. I still get caught by surprise by my own bad attitudes.
I get exasperated with the ongoing training regime that is required to quiet such a self-willed, noisy child.
So, here are some thoughts that seem to bring progress, but obviously not perfection.
-The Discipline of Starting Over. We all want immediate success, but success is often defined by how many times we were willing to start over. Unfortunately, because the inner person is responsible for important things like how we interact in relationships, the words most often associated with starting over are phrases like: I’m sorry, I was wrong, and will you forgive me. Ick!
-The Discipline of Understanding Motives. It takes immeasurable integrity and patience to sort out what is motivating our inner person. Our words give us a clue. “Out of the heart, the mouth speaks,” but who has the insight and courage to tell the truth even to oneself about our real motives?
-The Discipline of Perspective. It simply takes more imagination than we have sometimes to understand the perspective of the other person. But in our relationships, the other perspective is the one that will give us understanding. To get understanding, we must be willing to subdue that inner ego voice who is demanding to be the center of attention and ruler of the world.
-The Discipline of Gentle Words. Here, with gentle words, discipline begins at home. In the quiet recesses of our own hearts, we can begin to develop the habit of gentleness with oneself. Less expectations and more patience with oneself are sure to create a heart that has more wisdom and unselfish love to give to others.
-The Discipline of an Un-self-righteous Attitude. If our heart is searching for ways to compare and compete with others, it is time to pay attention. Self-righteousness is simply about finding a way to look good by comparison to others. It is based in insecurity. It is the opposite of throwing yourself on the mercy of God’s loving-kindness. The antidote to self-righteousness is self-worth.
Self-worth comes from knowing God’s complete delight in His design of you, especially your inner person.
Actually, when it comes to discipline, I think I’d rather diet and exercise than commit to inner discipline. Not that I’m too successful at those either! Ick!
For this New Year, why not give yourself permission to start over and try again with some disciplines for getting that inner person to shape up?
Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives and writes with a Texas twang. Comments are invited at http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com or cathykrafve@gmail.com