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Day Ten: Self-Control

I feel like self-control kind of wraps up all of the attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit into one. Without self-control many of the above words are difficult. Like I mentioned when I was talking about love, we often find it difficult to love people we don't get along with. Sometimes it can get more extreme and we want to do the opposite. No matter what level, it takes self-control to love someone we don't want to. It takes self-control to have joy in tough situations. It takes self-control to be patient with those who aren't 'worthy' of being patient. It takes self-control to show the Fruit of the Spirit on a daily basis. 

To be honest, I think this was one of the hardest ones for me to learn when I was younger. Don't get me wrong- I don't have it all perfect yet either, but I have been able to improve in this area with the Lord's help. But, I struggled with this one as a child because I wanted the immediate satisfaction of getting the 'prize' or whatever the situation was. For example, I did not know how to control my tongue when I was in a fight with a friend because I wanted to show how mad I was at them and get them to realize they were wrong. What I did not understand back then was that in the long run, our friendship could fall apart because I did not have the self-control to stop what I was saying. 

Self-control is one of the attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit that might not make a ton of sense in the moment, other than avoiding the situation's escalation. Yet, there are so many situations that will remain in the unknown because of the self-control used. This is a good thing. We all need to be able to show self-control and hold back all the fleshly emotions and words that could so easily come flowing out of us. Yet, none of them would bring glory to God. Self-control is very important to continue to show. 

Self-control reminds you, and sometimes even shows to the world that you admit you are not in control of your actions. Yes, you still have to own up to all the mistakes you make (which is plenty, just like me and everyone else as well). Yet, this means that when we show self-control we are allowing the Holy Spirit to take over our behaviors and redirect our focus on God. 

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