“You never realize how little self-control you have until they put chips and salsa in front of you at a Mexican restaurant.”   #truth

Having self-control isn’t always easy, as is so brilliantly illustrated in the example of trying not to eat the chips and salsa placed in front  of us…we can all relate to facing temptations, and hopefully we have all experienced how good it feels to actually have self-control in order to withstand those temptations.

Life is full of so many tempting circumstances that require us to exercise self-control to withstand them, but as we exercise our self-control on a consistent basis we become stronger and stronger. And the stronger we become the more we are able to withstand even the most tempting of life circumstances. But in order to become strong we have to stay consistent.

One of my favorite authors C.S. Lewis said, “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. … You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.”

Those times we feel pushed to our limits the best thing to do is remind ourselves that we absolutely can stay in control and we are capable of doing so. We can make that choice. We can have self-control over our thoughts, our moods, our words, our actions, our reactions, our health, our finances, and our time. We just have to make the choice to do so. And the longer we continue to have self-control, the easier it becomes for us to then stay in control.

As Dr. Seuss so eloquently reminds us:

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

Choose to exercise those muscles of self-control…it does a body and soul much good!

~Amy Rees Anderson