Article August 29, 1977 Issue

The Gift of Self-control

BEULAH M. ROEGGE

Hundreds of years ago an inspired man wrote to a young follower, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."^{II Tim. 1:7;} A modern translation renders "a sound mind" as "self-control." Whether one calls this gift a sound mind or self-control, the message is clear: God gives us the ability to think and act up to our highest sense of right.

Who hasn't longed for a greater measure of self-control? The jaunty boast that anyone can stop smoking when he wants to, or give up certain eating or sleeping habits when he wants to, or stop drinking or taking that drug ends all too often in the sober realization that he has been hooked.

"If I only hadn't started" is a cry that can be answered. Though an indulgence may have deepened into a longtime habit, idle acceptance of it and even willful clinging to it can be stopped. However, neither self-hypnotism through an exertion of self-will nor hypnotism by another can give one the freedom of genuine self-control. "Reflecting God's government, man is self-governed,"^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 125;} states Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. This spiritual fact offers us the help we need in expressing more dominion in our lives.

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