II Peter 1: 5-6: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness.”   The longer I live and lead my life, the more evident that self-control based on God’s Word and the Holy Spirit is a character trait and fruit of the Spirit of incredible significance.  How many times have you had to tell yourself or someone you lead, “Get hold of yourself?”  The biggest enemy is not external but within ourselves and our decision making.  Self-control has reference to restraining our passions, desires, appetites and anger.  It is fought in our minds and hearts.  The mind controls our passions and we often have to subdue ourselves and gain control.  Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5: 22-23. The best way to have self-control is to always focus our minds on Jesus Christ and God’s Word.  There are three key leadership areas of our daily lives that require self-control.

PERSONAL:  Self-control must start with our own personal lives to be able to control our passions, desires, appetites and anger.  The world in which we live is full of things to capture our passions and desires and the enemy knows it.  He wants to overindulge us to lose our self-control.  One of the most common passions for men is pornography which can capture a man’s mind and life.  We must capture every thought in our minds to have self-control.  It takes self-control to not go to porn sites on the internet and to hit the delete button or television remote to turn away when it comes up.  “Get hold of yourself.”

FAMILY:  Marriage and parenting require a lot of self-control along with perseverance, love, unselfishness and understanding.  It requires a lot of self-control to overcome selfishness to do what we want to do, rather than placing our wives and children ahead of ourselves.  Self-control is really evident in the home for us to not have an outburst of anger when love, patience and understanding are needed.  When we lose control, we are not walking in the Spirit and we need to “Get hold of yourself.”

WORK:  The third area of needed self-control is at work which is God’s calling on your life. People will irritate and try you to no end.  Most affairs start at work through emotional attachments.  Temptations of money and power are prevalent.  Your workers and your family are observing how you handle situations and your self-control.  When I served as President of Texas A&M, my daughter told me one night, “Dad, I was watching to see how you would handle that problem.”  Always remember under God’s Word and the Holy Spirit speaking to your mind, “Get hold of yourself and use self-control.”