Self Discipline

"When, like Timothy, you’re facing a challenge that seems too big for you, it’s helpful to know that ... our Father has not given us a panicking kind of spirit. But it’s also helpful to know what he has given us. Paul specifies three gifts from an omnipotent, gracious, knowledgeable, and sympathetic Father." - Olinger

"Right now America is in a permissive mood that is legalizing controlled substances, legitimizing prostitution as 'sex work,' embracing gambling as economic stimulant, and accepting pornography as harmless pastime. This permissiveness will run its course, until its excesses will provoke a new more restrictive era. Social Puritanism may recede for a season but it never disappears. Often it just morphs into new arenas." - Mark Tooley

"You lost it, you’re furious, and you feel like a total failure. You yelled, slammed the door, or hit the table. Then the shame and guilt set in. 'These are my precious children. What am I thinking? What can I do?'" - Challies

"It is not a zombie apocalypse. My hope for you is that when this time comes to an end you will not just have survived, but you will have thrived. And your life on the other side will be better." - Church Leaders

"This idea did not entirely originate in Silicon Valley. As a scholar who studies digital technology and religion, I’d argue that the motivations and benefits of dopamine fasting resemble what many religions have been teaching since ancient times." - The Conversation

"Over the past few months I’ve tried a little experiment to limit interruptions and distractions. I keep my phone on the Do Not Disturb setting DND all the time. Wait! What? That’s madness! How do you survive?" - Jonathan Smith

"With so much of our lives revolving around media consumption, it behooves us to develop what Tony Reinke, in his new book Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age, calls 'a theology of visual culture.'" - Christianity Today

"There’s a back and forth—there is a role that we play in our relational life with God. That role is, as Paul puts it, that we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. Now, how do you do that? I’d say primarily—not exclusively, but primarily—through the classical disciplines of the spiritual life." - CToday