Think Again!

106 • Think Again: Transformation That Yields a Return on God’s Investment

evaluate situations in terms of your rights . You react out of your own self-protection, and why not? As impulsiveness increases, thankfulness fades from your conversation and complaining becomes the norm. You think your desires are too strong, and temptation is overwhelming. Out of desperation, you may ask God to simply exempt you from the rules of life so you can get what you want. This is what Satan offered Jesus at the temptation, which is called “putting the Lord to the test” (Matt. 4.7). Impulsiveness is particularly debilitating because your lack of self-control can lead to extreme discouragement. When you fail at one thing, you notice failure at everything. You say, “I can’t stop smoking.” Then you notice, “I can’t read my Bible.” Before long, you cascade into despair, believing you are a failure at everything . You feel helpless. You want to gain control over your behavior but you feel no power to change. In the extreme, such discouragement has led people to give up their faith in God altogether. Modern Families Several decades of permissiveness in American society have promoted impulsiveness. Children learn at an early age that parents are eager spare their kids distress of any kind. So children are trained that the world should cater to them. As they grow up, they discover that not everyone bends to their desires so they are deceived by Satan, saying, “Everybody hates me. Nobody understands me. The whole world is rotten.” Rather than exercising self-control by learning to deny themselves, young people fall into all kinds of temptations. Discipline and chastity are believed to be impossible in today’s world. Angry motorists become violent when their space is