Discipline of Our Time
To live a life of purpose and productivity, we must cultivate discipline, punctuality, and self-control.
Mary Wilder Tileston emphasizes the importance of discipline and punctuality in the Christian life, highlighting the need to run the race of faith with certainty and purpose, to fight spiritual battles with intentionality, and to bring our bodies under subjection through self-discipline. She encourages believers to redeem the time by avoiding procrastination, dawdling, and distractions that hinder spiritual growth and holiness, and instead, to cultivate habits of diligence, punctuality, and readiness for God's work.
Text
I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:26,27
THE slack, indolent temperament, disposed to self indulgence and delay, will find a very practical and helpful discipline in strict punctuality, a fixed habit of rising to the minute, when once a time is settled on; in being always ready for meals, or the various daily matters in which our unpunctuality makes others uncomfortable. Persons have found their whole spiritual life helped and strengthened by steadfastly conquering a habit of dawdling, or of reading newspapers and desultory bits of books, when they ought to be settling about some duty.
H. L. SIDNEY LEAR
Let us "redeem the time." Desultory working, fitful planning, irregular reading, ill-assorted hours, perfunctory or unpunctual execution of business, hurry and bustle, loitering and unreadiness,--these, and such like, are the things which take out the whole pith and power from life, which hinder holiness, and which cat like a canker into our moral being.
HORATIUS BONAR
Sermon Outline
- I. The Importance of Discipline in Our Time
- A. The dangers of slackness and indolence
- B. The benefits of punctuality and self-control
- II. The Discipline of Punctuality
- A. The value of rising to the minute and being ready for meals
- B. The importance of settling on a time and sticking to it
- III. The Discipline of Self-Control
- A. The need to conquer habits of dawdling and desultory reading
- B. The importance of focusing on duties and responsibilities
Key Quotes
“Let us 'redeem the time.'” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“These, and such like, are the things which take out the whole pith and power from life, which hinder holiness, and which cat like a canker into our moral being.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- Make a conscious effort to be punctual and on time, and to prioritize your duties and responsibilities.
- Practice self-control by avoiding habits of dawdling and desultory reading, and by focusing on your goals and objectives.
- Redeem your time by being intentional with how you use it, and by prioritizing your spiritual growth and development.