Time to Take Control
I used to believe I had control over so many things…and then life happened 🙂. I discovered that I actually can’t control what other people do, I can’t control the circumstances I find myself in, and I certainly don’t have the ability to control the future.
What’s an area of your life right now where you’re realizing you don’t have control?
It could be your parenting or your job or your emotions or your thoughts. When we begin to realize we don’t have control, it’s easy to become discouraged and take this mindset - Since I don’t have control, I guess nothing I do really matters. While it’s true that you don’t have control, what you do matters so much!
You can’t make that company hire you, but you can decide how you present yourself in the interview.
You can’t make your business or church grow, but you can remove the obstacles that are in the way of growth.
You can’t make your kids behave a certain way, but you can model the behavior you long to see in them.
You can’t keep every thought from entering your mind, but you can limit how much news you watch or how many hours you spend scrolling social media.
While so much is out of your control, there is still one form of control you’ve been given: SELF-CONTROL.
4 Ways You can take Responsibility and Engage in Self-Control:
While you can’t control how someone treated you in the past, you can schedule therapy and put yourself on a path to healing. I have no idea all that you’ve been through, but I do know what someone else did to you wasn’t your responsibility. At the same time, I want to encourage you to take ownership of your healing and not let yourself be held back any longer by what was done to you.
While you can’t control decisions your company makes about your career, you can develop a work ethic that would make it foolish to think about letting you go. Every organization is looking for people who have high integrity, a passion to grow, and a strong work ethic. These are things you can control about yourself and they will stand out when your company is making decisions about your future.
While you can’t control exactly what your body looks like, you can eat less and exercise more. Genetics is a real thing and we can’t control most of how it affects us. At the same time, we get a say-so in what we do with our diet, bedtimes, and exercise. Don’t try to go from doing nothing to running a marathon this weekend. Just take one step towards your physical fitness goals. And then next week take another step. Over time, physical transformation will happen.
While you can’t make spiritual growth happen, you can engage in spiritual practices that make it more conducive for God to transform your life. Spiritual growth isn’t exactly like a formula and it’s rarely linear. However, we’ve been given practices that help form us into spiritually mature persons. Choose one of these practices and see what God does - prayer, scripture, silence, solitude, worship, meditation, fasting, or anything else that postures your life more into God’s presence.
I’ve written an entire chapter called “Owning Your Part” in Bring It Out. If you want to take back control of the things that are actually in your hand, let me encourage you to order a copy today.
Embracing Self-Control,
