by J. Randal Matheny

There are days I'd like to stay in bed. It's cold or rainy or still dark outside or I stayed up late the night before or I have some heavy task awaiting me. I wish I could pull the covers over my head and make the world go away.

But I pull back the covers, roll out of bed, stick my feet into my havaianas, and shuffle off to the shower. For a person like myself with no boss to check my time sheet or clock to punch, with no supervisor looking over my shoulder, the temptation can be great to shave corners and sluff off.

It's all about self-discipline.

Discipline is consistently doing what you must do to get to where to want to go, regardless of your level of motivation or intensity of emotion.

It feels good to be on an emotional high. Getting charged up pumps us with energy. But we don't live on full tanks.

Discipline is keeping important things up front, putting everything in its place and having a place for everything, as Isabella Beeton said. Discipline means order in the midst of chaos, calm in the heat of conflict.

Discipline is learned, acquired in increments as we daily make small decisions with big cumulative effects.

Discipline is a result, a consequence of divine intervention, a fruit of the Spirit given to the attentive. Not an end but a means to an end, an evidence of God at work.

Discipline is submission to God's training, to an admonition or correction. Stubborn determination to get the job done, starting from within.

Discipline, at least these days, it seems, is a rare commodity, since so many are after the fast buck and the easy road. Or the comfortable bed.

So, it's 6 a.m.

Covers back. Roll out. Off to the shower and into the world of discipline.

Congratulations.