Devotion

Fruit of the spirit – Self-control 

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." — 2 Timothy 1:7

We live in a world that celebrates immediacy. We want what we want, and we want it Increasingly, the world is designed to oblige us. For our children, growing up in this environment, the quiet counter-cultural discipline of self-control can feel almost foreign.

And yet here, in Paul's second letter to Timothy, we find something striking. Self-control (or self-discipline) is not presented as a white-knuckled effort of human willpower. It is presented as a gift. It comes from God. It is part of the same spirit that brings power and love.

This frames everything rather differently. Self-control is not about gritting your teeth and resisting temptation through sheer determination. It is about being so anchored in who God says you are - loved, purposeful and held - that the pull of the immediate loses some of its grip. It grows, as Paul reminds us elsewhere, from the inside out, as one of the fruits of a life lived close to God.

For our students and ourselves, this is an important concept. Whether we are navigating the impulse to react unkindly, the temptation to take shortcuts, the lure of screens, or the harder work of persisting when something is difficult, self-control is less about saying no to something, and more about saying yes to something greater.

As a school community, we have the privilege of helping to cultivate this fruit through pointing our children toward the source from which it truly grows.

Prayer

Dear God, thank you that you do not leave us to our own strength. Grow in us, and in our children, a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline.. Amen.

Blessings!

Will Wallace

Principal