The power of discipline in the pursuit of success
The pastor yelled at me as he lamented that I did not express enough enthusiasm to learn about the ‘Heart of Christ’. I repeated the same answer. I told him that I did not understand what he meant and that I was not amused by the teachings of the church after all. This made him yell at me even more, and I responded by being adamant about the ‘futility’ of his efforts to teach me about Christ. At last, he lost his temper and slapped me so hard that a burning sensation swept across my face. For a moment I did not know what had hit me. I cried out aloud. I cursed him. It did not matter to me that we were inside a church. I was not disciplined.
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Yes, I was not disciplined, and I was encountering numerous problems both at the personal and family levels. However, as I came to learn later, this should by no means have been a justification for being an undisciplined person in life. As the pain of the pastor’s blow sunk in, I found my way out of the church, muttered some profanities to the pastor, and headed home.
It had been another hell of a Sunday. The week had been a particularly bad one for me. As a Junior-year pupil, the memory of failing in my grades three days ago was still fresh in my mind. I was overcome by anger and frustration with myself as I remembered how my best friends had laughed at me that Wednesday evening. Since that day, I had this bad feeling that my life was taking a downhill trend, and that there was nothing my family or I could do to get out of the situation.
Talking of my family, this is another area where adversity had set in, battered our family, and left the people who mattered most to me utterly bitter with life. My mother was heartbroken because my father was constantly ignoring her and was not interested in supporting his wife and son. He was only keen on his own needs.
Three days after the altercation with my erstwhile favorite pastor, my mother came home unusually early and told me that she wanted us to discuss something important. She talked to me at length about one thing: discipline. She emphasized that I needed to be disciplined about three things, namely school work, domestic chores, and Sunday teachings. I guess she had noticed that I was becoming detached from and indifferent about life.
Looking back at the confrontation with the pastor, I realize that he must have noticed the same problem of indiscipline in my behavior. I had started being indifferent to his teachings. At home, I was careless about daily chores and I never completed homework on time. So, I failed all mathematics tests and suffered a thorough beating in the able hands of the junior-year teacher.
The following Sunday marked the turning point in my life. Following the advice from my mum about the need for discipline, I swore to always do what was expected of me at school, at the church, and at home. It did not matter that I did not understand some of the things that were being taught at the church, for example the so-called ‘Heart of Christ’. What mattered was that I had to demonstrate discipline in an effort to understand all the teachings.
Fortunately for me, a new pastor was brought in to replace the old one. Moreover, the first topic that the pastor discussed with us was discipline! What a coincidence! Since that day, I have always endeavored to be disciplined in everything I do. This discipline paid off sooner than I had expected. At the end of the following year, I was on top of my class in mathematics grade. When the results were read out in class, I was once again proud with my life. This time round, my friends did not have a reason to laugh at me. Instead, they clapped and cheered because of the sudden turnaround in the direction of my academic performance!