UNDERSTANDING DISCIPLINE

Self-discipline is rooted in self-management.  It’s essentially a character development decision to manage self.  Self-control results.  A self-disciplined person is usually a self-motivated person.  Most high achievers are self-motivated.  They generally surpass their teachers and mentors. 

Whoever chose the watchwords Discipline, Production and Tolerance for our nation, most certainly knew something about the main ingredients for real success.  I also think that the order of the words was so arranged quite deliberately.    Discipline is first in line.  Indeed, only discipline can make the other two possible.  In fact, if we had only a single watchword — Discipline — and strictly adhered to it, we would be one of the greatest nations on the planet. Discipline has to do with decision, control, management and culture. It may also involve deculturing, dehabituation and behavioural or attitude adjustments.  A culture of discipline must begin with the individual.  This is called self-discipline. Self-discipline is rooted in self-management.  It’s essentially a quality character development decision to manage self.  Self-control results.  A self-disciplined person is usually a self-motivated person.  Most high achievers are self-motivated.  They generally surpass their teachers and mentors. In self-discipline and self-management, there are specific areas upon which focus is necessary in order to obtain the best results.  The list includes:

* Mental discipline:  We are fundamentally what we think. Our lifestyle, speech, intellectual development, behaviour, dress code and friends primarily reflect our thinking.  “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Pro 23:7).  Evil, straying, vile or promiscuous thoughts are weapons of mass destruction in the mind of the school-child, as well as the adult.   We are strongly exhorted to “have the mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5). 

* Emotional discipline:  There are negative or destructive emotions such as lust, infatuation, greed, anger, hatred, envy and fear.  There are also positive or empowering emotions like love, joy, peace, courage, optimism and faith. It is heartbreaking to see the extremely fierce onslaught of lust-provoking material to which today’s  children are exposed.  It comes through the television, the internet, the music, rampant pornography and peers.  With all these erotic emotions running wild, big indiscipline problems in the family and  schools are an inevitability. The extremely frightening STDs epidemic — particularly HIV/AIDS — provides a grim reflection of the enormous indiscipline problem we face, in terms of managing sexual emotions, across the board. 

* Social discipline:  How many times we engage in certain types of behaviour only because of social order or pressure?  A common type is called “peer pressure.”  Our actions are driven merely by the craving for social acceptance.  We may indulge in alcohol and narcotics or get entangled in violations of the law of the land or infractions in school, only because we want to be “part of the crowd.” Social discipline will include good manners, protocol, ethics and etiquette.  Discipline also produces respect for authority, loyalty and a sense of responsibility.

* Verbal discipline:  In my lectures dealing with communication and interpersonal skills, I use the phrase “mouth management,” which I coined some years ago.  With a bit of humour, it usually gets the point across.  More people may have gotten into trouble because of an undisciplined tongue, than anything else.  The Apostle James warns, “The tongue can no man tame.  It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:8).  Only by God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s power can the tongue be tamed.  People who are discreet with their words, generally avoid much danger and command much respect.   “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Pro 18:21).

* Physical discipline:  Soldiers and sportsmen know how critically important this is.  Just as important is proper posture for each person in sitting, standing, listening to someone, eye contact and body language as a whole.  The manner in which a lady sits, stands or attires herself, for example, can tell a lot about her character and value system. 

* Economic discipline:  The Bible says that a fool and his money are soon parted.  How do you rate in managing money?  Do you spend wildly, or are you a thrifty, intelligent money manager?  Are you a compulsive, impulsive spender, or are you the discerning, astute shopper?  How do you score in terms of earning money, budgeting, saving and investing? 

* Appetite discipline:  The human being basically has five appetites:  hunger, thirst, sleep, the spiritual and sex.  Any of these, from hunger to sex, without the appropriate checks and balances, can obviously lead to disaster.  Bad appetite discipline got Adam and Eve — and all of us by extension — into big trouble.  Christ saved us by appetite discipline when He refused to obey the devil and “turn the stones into bread.” 

* Enforcing discipline:  Where self-discipline is absent, or indiscipline is present, discipline may have to be enforced.  As the very term suggests, “enforcing” discipline will involve some kind of force — tender or tough — whether it is at home, school, the workplace or the courts.  A law without punishment is as good as no law at all.  Appropriate disciplinary measures should not be compromised.

* Conclusion: The greatest teacher that ever lived, Jesus Christ, took discipline as His number one priority in human development. He called His followers “disciples” which means “disciplined ones.”  He did not merely call them “believers.”  A believer is one who believes, but a disciple is one who is disciplined to do what he/she believes.  Discipline wins!