The Latin word from whence we get “discipline”, literally means “instruction, knowledge.” So the lack, then, of discipline, must imply a lack of knowledge. This comes as a hard blow to someone like myself, who tends to think of a vice, such as procrastination, a mere employee to be taken in hand. I confess I have a zealous disregard for routine and scheduling. Mind you, I do not arrive late for appointments or church. No, my disregard is out of a nagging fear that if I succumb to the day-planner, the bullet journal or the desk calendar, then I have been “entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.
This fear has not served me well. It’s the classic battle of the legalist fleeing from any detection of liberalism, and vice versa. As our school year begins anew, and I find myself struggling to justify committing my schedule for four students, baking bread, planning our meals, cleaning the house, orchestrating chores, and choosing the hymns for Sunday services, to memory, I am drawn to the simple wisdom of Mr. Ravenhill: “We must once again wear the harness of discipline. There is no other way.”
May God bless your school year, and may next month see me writing my blog more than three hours before the deadline;)