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I Choose Discipline Over Regret

Try this with me. Think about where your prayer, physical, financial, or family life is. Now, think about where you want it to be. What’s in between? If you’re normal, there’s the infamous gap. It’s the same gap that occurs when our exterior doesn’t match our interior. The gap between knowing the truth and incorporating the change. It’s the gap between discipline and regret.

When my oldest daughter was four, I’d been in vocational ministry for about seven years. I’d drifted away from giving myself to a part of my life that was far more important than my job as a pastor: my kids. Drifting is the opposite of discipline. To do nothing would have been to choose the regret of creating another “Pastor’s Kid” statistic.

I wasn’t waking up every morning thinking, “I want to be a bad father.” But, I also wasn’t waking up every morning and deciding to fill the gap. So I made a decision. I chose discipline. I decided to do something every week for the next 18 years with at least one of my three daughters. It might be a date, a note, a word of affirmation, but definitely something out of my way. Why? Because it was hard to get traction with my feet propped up.

Proverbs 25:28 NLT spells it out, A person without self-control [discipline] is like a city with broken-down walls. Today, all three of my daughters love Jesus and love the church. Two of my sons-in-law are in full-time ministry. I am so thankful the Holy Spirit inspired and empowered me to choose discipline over regret.

Act: Where are the gaps in your life? What discipline is the Holy Spirit leading you to commit to in order to make the change?

Ronnie Brumley, campus pastor at Life.Church