January is a great time to work on changing the way we play this game of life. It feels like a fresh, crisp start to a new year! Are you ready? We’re going to spend the month in Proverbs, a book packed with wisdom—especially about the topic of Self-Control.

Self-control means choosing to do what you should do and not what you want to do. This is a way to display to the world around us that we have God in our lives. And He’s present every hour of every day, ready to help us take control of our thoughts, words and actions.

Each week, we’ll talk specifically about choosing to have self-control in areas where we know kids (and adults) typically struggle.

In week one, the Proverbs principle we’re focusing on compares someone without self-control to a city with broken down walls—defenseless (Proverbs 25:28 NIrV). Our Bottom Line is: God can give you the power to control yourself.

In week two, we’re studying a young and new king, Solomon, who was smart enough to ask God to make him wise. The Bottom Line is: Pause before you lose your temper. We want to be slow to anger, to make the best choice for the future too, instead of just reacting based on how we feel and what we want right now.

In week three, we’re continuing to see the destruction that happens when we don’t have self-control. We want kids to know that God wants better for us and wants to protect us. So, we’ll focus on the hurt that’s caused when we use our words without thinking about what we’re saying. We need to be slow to speak because wise people’s words can bring healing to a situation (Proverbs 12:8). The Bottom Line is: Select your words carefully.

Finally, in week four, we continue to see that sometimes God says things a certain way to grab our attention and hold it long enough to make His point. Proverbs 25:16 clearly says we better be cautious or we’ll end up in a stinky mess. None of us like getting sick (or cleaning up), that’s why our Bottom Line is: Know when to stop.

We can’t wait to hear what you think about Self-control: Changing the way you play! God is the key ingredient in self-control and He’ll help us have the power to control ourselves.

By Cara Martens. ©2011 Orange. All rights reserved. www.WhatIsOrange.org * All rights reserved. Used by permission.

No Comments

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment