A Winner's Discipline

Many people are watching the 2014 Winter Olympics. They see the results of long months, in some cases years, of training as athletes. These participants undergo a disciplined routine in hopes of winning a medal. They have disciplined themselves to eat right, work tirelessly, and to hone their skills to be the world's best. Everyone admires their resolve and willpower.

Is there a lesson to us as spectators? I think so. The drive to be successful grips many people, but few sustain that drive. Often people wish they had the discipline to be successful in business, to lose weight, or get into good physical shape. Many people succeed in those quests, but most make some vital mistakes in stretching for their goals for greatness.

How many sacrifice one area of their life to gain success in another area? Quite often the drive to make more money or to look physically better leads to an unbalanced commitment in another area of life. That objective for success may ignore other areas of importance.

Some areas that suffer are relationships. Marriage relationships often suffer when a person centers their attention on only one goal. Other times the relationship between parents and their children take a back seat. The more significant damage centers on their spiritual relationship. An obsession for a personal goal can pull one's life purpose into one area at the neglect of others. Often that neglected party is God. Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

A winner's discipline looks toward God first. Then they fit their other goals to be in concert with God. No one is a winner who places any goal over God.

Pastor Dick Crosby