Self Control

You know that verse, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour."? It's from 1 Peter 5:8; Peter was definitely speaking from experience, right? I feel like this could be the verse that could change my life...if I only had the self- control to apply it. :p

A few years ago, I worked through "The Purpose Driven Life" with a fellow believer here, and she made this comment:

Self control is like a muscle; if you don't exercise it regularly in the little things, it won't be able to perform for you in the big things.

Isn't that SO true? I am like a big fat slob when it comes to self control. So I exercised that muscle a very little bit today; it was painful, but I feel like a better person because of it.

I've been working on this layout for the last three days, and it still is not finished. Unfinished layouts leave me feeling restless, like I need to get back and finish it. So I was working on it this morning, but it is hard to get into the groove when children have to be fed and entertained and clothed, etc. So I was getting irritable with the constant interuptions, when all the sudden it occurred to me that THEY are more important than that unfinished layout. I know, I qualify for genius, right?

For once I listened to that voice that said, "GET OFF THE BLOODY COMPUTER!" At 10 this morning, I shut it down and vowed not to get back on till noon, since SSD new releases woudn't be up before then anyway, and I played with my kids. I made a pair of binoculars with Jack:

We busted out the sidewalk chalk and made a rainbow & our family before we started flooding the deck with water and spending the next hour making color puddles & body art.


I even managed to stay off till 12:30, after lunch. So maybe tomorrow, I'll work that muscle a little harder. In fact, I think I will start tonight with a nice work out and not get back online after we get home from dinner. I could use a good night's sleep!