The theme for this Sunday’s service is self control.
When my wife and I went to our first OBGYN appointment, the nurse practitioner informed my wife of what she should expect for weight gain over the course of her pregnancy. Then the nurse practitioner turned to me and sternly said, “You should not gain any weight.” I did not quite follow her admonition. If not for giving up desserts for Lent, I might be looking eight months pregnant as well. I did not use much will power over the past few months.
Those of us who are dieting, or trying to get a handle on some other area of our lives, need self control, and the typical method of trying to gain self control is the use of will power. We try and force ourselves to do right actions and make right choices, but neuroscientist Adele Diamond and psychologist Deborah Leong have found that self control is developed through play, at least in children.
Not just any play works to develop self control, the best kind of play is imaginative. “When children learn to rely on themselves for playtime — improvising props, making up games and stories — they’re actually developing critical cognitive skills, including an important one called ‘executive function,’ they say. Essentially, executive function is the ability to regulate one’s own behavior — a key skill for controlling emotions, resisting impulses and exerting self control and discipline.”
Perhaps the key to self control is not how strong our will is, but what we do with our imagination, in other words, our play. Are our minds on things above, or are we focused on the thing we are trying to resist (Colossians 3:2)? In our recreation and dreams, do we think about that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8)?
The Lord says, “I answer prayer in keeping with a person’s actions, so that I may recapture that person’s imagination.” (paraphrase of Ezekiel 14:4-5)
The full story of Diamond’s and Leong’s research can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=76838288.
