By Ann Weaver.
Self-Discipline:
The ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.
(New Oxford American Dictionary)
Self-discipline and discipline are two very different things. Though it may not sound that way, when we take a closer look we can see there are multiple differences between the two actions.
As you can see in the second half of the definition, self-discipline is “…the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.” On the other hand, discipline is defined as “The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.”
Though the first thing that comes to mind with the word “discipline” may be children being punished by their parents, discipline is everywhere. It’s simply not often called that. It’s used in so many places, and may be called training, teaching, regulation, or some other word. But in the end, it’s all the same thing.
Self-discipline is everywhere as well. Often, we call it “forming habits” or something else similar. Self-discipline is making yourself get up in the mornings instead of lying in bed for an hour. It’s reading a schoolbook before your half-finished novel. It’s helping your mother when you’d much rather be doing whatever you want to do.
Another contrast between these two descriptions is who is disciplining the person. In self-discipline, it is obviously yourself. In discipline, it’s usually someone else.
When we’re children, it’s our parent’s job to discipline us, to bring us up in a way according to the Bible and their own personal rules and wishes. After all, in Proverbs 13:1 it says that, “A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.” It’s their duty to discipline, and our duty to accept it and learn from it. As it says in Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
As we grow older, we have to learn to discipline ourselves, while still remaining under the authority and discipline of our parents. This can often be a difficult balance to find. And that balance continues all our lives. Though we aren’t disciplined by our parents forever, there is probably no time that we aren’t being disciplined in some way.
One last interesting thing to note in the contrast between discipline and self-discipline is that the first consists of training people to obey rules or a behavior code made by another, such as when a parent disciplines their child according to the rules of their home. In the latter, however, it’s about pursuing things that you deem right, without any ideas or restrictions from another person.
Discipline may sound more difficult, but often it’s self-discipline that takes the most work. In self-discipline, we must motivate ourselves, instead of having someone else do it for us. Often, motivation is the most difficult problem to solve.
Both of these types of discipline are everywhere, and though they’re applied by different people, they’re equally important. Also, keep an eye out later this month for an article on practical ways on how to discipline ourselves!
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