Believe Manifesto

As I have moved into my last week of “Clothes”, I have been thinking about how SELF-CONTROL is such a huge part of this. That is actually the heart of my issue with shopping and clothing. So what does the bible say about self control?

(Also I should note I hate hyphenated words so there were probably hyphens harmed in the making of this post. Grace.)

“Losing self-control leaves you as helpless as a city without a wall.” (Prov. 25:28)

^“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control”   (1 Tim 2:8-9)

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,  for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” ( 2 Tim 1:6-7)

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7)

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

That’s not even all it says, but these apply to what has been working on my heart the last few days. I had to practice so much self control not to buy a shirt for my birthday. I hadn’t shared this yet, but I have basically wearing my chambray shirt almost every day. My friend Whitney even said, she keeps forgetting about 7 until she sees me in that shirt. So last week when I was in Springfield I realized I had lost a button. I had to use self-control to go buy a small sewing kit, cut a “non-important” button off and put it in the place of the “important button” so I didn’t run around like a floozy all day. It took self-control to walk into American Eagle over the weekend and not try on ONE SINGLE THING, and not buy ONE SINGLE THING. Buy PRACTICING this, I am building a tougher skin to use self control in this area every day.

This is basically a miracle in and of itself considering Derick and I had a conversation about six months ago about how I wasn’t able to go to the mall without him…

The reason that we need to practice this self-control is because it is a attribute of the Spirit. And if we don’t show this in our actions, we aren’t setting the example as Jesus would have. Jesus was the most self controlled person to ever walk this earth. No matter what the circumstance, his self-control could not be shaken. Isn’t that amazing. I just thing about all the beauty and love that could be spread if we all made it a priority to practice more self-control every day.

What are areas where you need to practice self-control today?