Self-Control

“It must be the aim of education,” said Winthrop Aldrich, “to teach the citizen that he must first of all rule himself….” The question of self-control is a compelling question. It includes control of thoughts, of appetites, of actions; control of what we do with time, and the direction of our lives into eternity. There is a sentence from John Locke, which says: “…every man must sometime or other be trusted to himself.” When God gave us the right to choose, we were in a sense trusted to ourselves, and we became accountable. But whenever someone does something he should not do, he is inclined to justify himself, to blame pressures or outside influences, to say that he is not responsible for his own actions. But if this were so, no law would have any force or effect, because essentially we would always be saying that we that we cannot personally be held accountable. Some become enslaved with habits; some yield to appetites or improper actions, and plead that they are helpless because of their habits⎯that they are compelled or persuaded or that temptation was stronger than their will to resist. But we can choose. We do choose⎯in many things⎯and we can choose in others also. We can break bad habits; we can acquire good ones; we can even choose what we think in time by the sheer determination to do so. God has given us the right and obligation to choose between right and wrong. This is one of life’s purposes, and the person who says he has no self-control is saying something much more serious than he supposes⎯because if we cannot control our thoughts, we cannot control our actions, and if we cannot control our actions how could we be trusted in any situation or assignment? The commandments are still in force. So are the laws of health, the laws of the land, the laws of life, and they must be lived. Blessedly we can repent; we can turn from a wrong road. But we are responsible for our thoughts, our words, our actions, and we must have the character and the conviction to keep self-control. “Conviction,” said Carlyle, “is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.” “Confirm thy soul, in self-control, thy liberty in law.”