Dreams and Discipline

Woke up this morning after a dream of Dave Ramsey screaming to some person (probably me) about getting out of debt.  I don't know what it means, but I think my brain is finally becoming convinced that I need to get out of debt.  Dave talks about a paradigm shift, and I think I'm going through one right now. 

For example.  Normally, if I sit down to play World of Warcraft and tell myself "only 30 minutes" then it usually turns into an hour or more.  Last night, I sat down and told myself "only 30 minutes" and quit after roughly 30 minutes.  I say close, because I started a timer when I started playing, and got disconnected about 15 minutes in or so.  Probably the horrible wireless firmware on an HP laptops.  After reconnecting, I played for another 12 minutes.  And then I quit. 

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.   Hebrews 12:11

And the more I think of that, the more I realize the training of discipline has been a life-long process.  I learned a lot of it in the Marines, but after that it's easy to forget.  It's the problem of learning from second hand knowledge.  If Bob goes to the class and learns something, he will know it well.  Bob teaches Jim.  Jim teaches Sue.  Sue teaches Fred.  Fred teaches the rest of the world.  Is what Bob and Fred learned the same thing?  Not really, because Bob learned from the teacher and Fred learned from what someone else decided was important.  What I think is important is not necessarily what others think is important. 

Many of the Marines I learned from were like that.  They learned to do something, but they never learned why they did it.  They performed an action out of repetition.  There was always an important theory behind the teaching, but the theory was never taught, just the action.  I guess I'm now beginning to learn the reasoning and not just the action. 

The Bible spends a lot of time talking about discipline.  Proverbs specifically spends a lot of time telling people to quit being lazy.  Proverbs 5 talks about getting wisdom at any cost.  Proverbs 6:6-8 is another one.

So pay attention, quit being lazy, and change your life.  It's not easy, but it's worth it.