Related articles - Discipline
It’s not very often that I get angry enough at what I’m seeing or hearing, that I talk back to my TV set. My friend does it all the time, but I’m usually pretty cool. I just sit, watch and take it all in.
It was a 60 Minute program that got me riled up. Some American school kids were demanding their rights. The new principal at the secondary school had laid down the law. He was bringing much needed discipline to a system that had gone anarchistic. He was clamping down on drugs, blatant promiscuity, drinking, violence and foul language. The students, and even some parents, were claiming that this autocratic principal was cutting off their rights of freedom of expression. And they were practising what they were advocating. Their behaviour, and their slanderous views of authority, were so vile that the principal wanted to expel them. The students wanted their right to express whatever their opinions, no matter how disrespectful, (even to the point of saying that they wanted the principal to die in the school newspaper.
I believe that lack of discipline is one of the reasons for the breakdown of our modern society. Canada has always had a reputation for peace, order and good government, and has not suffered to the same degree from anarchy that our friends down south have, but we’re moving in that direction.
In my dictionary, it is written that the Latin root of the word discipline, is discere, which means to learn. The first definition of the word, discipline is: training for the mental, moral and physical powers by instruction, control and exercise. True freedom does not come to the undisciplined person, it comes only to the disciplined person.
If I do not discipline my mind to read, study and learn, I will be bound by my ignorance for my entire life. If I do not discipline my moral behaviour, speech and thought life; rather than be free, I will become a slave to my lowest nature. I will be motivated by fear, anger and lust rather than reason and justice. If I do not discipline my body, by eating right, exercising and sleeping adequately; then my body will ultimately lose its freedom which attends good health.
A kite is not hindered by the control that a string has over it, rather it is freed to fly because of the discipline of the attached string. If I were to free the kite from its restrictive string, it would fall to the ground. The discipline and restraint of the string gives the kite its freedom.
As I drive down the Lougheed Highway in our city, I thank God for the discipline of the rules of the road. It’s because of the speed limits, the lines on the road, the signs, the stop lights and the RCMP that we are free to drive in peace and safety. The rules of the road free us. Take them away and we have anarchy and chaos. Thank God for the virtue of discipline -- may we never forsake it!
