Discipline Will Pay Off

I wanted to talk a little about this subject of discipline.  In society today, this quality has been devalued and almost looked at as a flaw rather than an asset.  People believe that if you are disciplined, that you are no fun and are not allowed to enjoy life because you are too strict on yourself.  I believe the opposite, without disciple, nothing can really be accomplished and also without discipline, there is bound to be chaos.  As I look around me, there is evidence of lack of discipline everywhere from crime all the way up to obesity.  I know that there are many factors that lead to someone causing a major crime or being overweight, but I bet that some of it has to do with discipline not being instilled in them during their lives.  Here is a story that the Priest told during church one Sunday about how discipline will pay off:

There was once a little boy who loved dessert, but his parents would not let him eat dessert until he ate all of his vegetables.  The little boy did not like this at all because when he talked to all his friends, they all told him that his parents were too strict because they all could have dessert whenever they wanted even if they did not eat any of their vegetables.  The little boy brought this up to his parents with no avail.  His parents explained how important it was to eat your vegetables, but more importantly that they were teaching him how to be disciplined.  The parents kept saying that "discipline will pay off."

One day, the little boy's Mom happened to stumble on a box that the little boy had beside his bed.  When the Mom opened it up, she found lots of money inside the box.  She did not know where it came from, so she decided to ask her son where he had gotten all the money.  What the little boy told his mom was that at school, the rules were the same for dessert as they were at home, nobody could have dessert until they ate their vegetables.  Since the other kids weren't disciplined enough to eat their vegetables before dessert, they would pay him money to eat their vegetables.  He would charge the other kids $.50 for peas, $1 for carrots, $2 for broccoli, and so on, and that is where the little boy had mad all his money.  So the little boy said to his parents, "you were right, discipline does pay off."