Flavor #26:   Discipline (Musar; Energes; Hypomone)

(Complete list and links to the 31 Flavors of Wisdom)

Meaning, Essence, and Significance: The Hebrew term Musar encompasses discipline, instruction, and correction. It implies guidance aimed at your moral and ethical development and is often associated with fatherly correction intended to impart wisdom and character. In the Book of Proverbs, Musar emphasizes the importance of accepting correction to gain education, knowledge and understanding for personal growth, ultimately aligning your behaviors with the moral values you’ve chosen to live by.  Energes is the Greek word from which we get our English word Energy, and the word picture is “of freshly plowed land” that is active and has the potential to accomplish its purpose (remember the statement “the land is teeming with energy?”).  With Energes, I encourage you to be mindful with what you place into the soil of your mind, because you will activate and grow something!  Hypomone, or Endurance, is the character within you that does not allow you to easily surrender to situations or circumstances that beset you. Rather, Hypomone encourages you to cultivate a mindset where patience and tranquility helps you to bear up and endure circumstances you’d just as soon forget.  This is where the practice of spiritual disciplines, such as silence, solitude, reelection, meditation, prayer, study, fasting and service, can connect and empower you through your Higher Power, helping you to cultivate the substance of Endurance, to navigate unpleasant circumstances and, when possible, grow a positive and constructive outcome for yourself and others. 

Practical Manifestation and Nutritional Value: Practically, Musar manifests as the conscious effort to embrace instruction and where needed, correction in daily life. Discipline becomes alive when you’re open to feedback, learn from mistakes, continually strive for self-improvement and remain committed to your growth process. By internalizing Musar, Energes and Hypomone, you give yourself the opportunity to experience the “nutritional value” of this work, which is reflected in your ability to cultivate virtues such as humility (#22), patience, endurance and resilience, and to never, ever give up on the goals, activities and skills (#24) you choose and deserve to fruitfully live by!

Who deserves some of this seasoning?  “My close friends, because when faced with a challenging season in their life, I can offer show up for them by engaging in compassionate and constructive conversations, providing honest feedback with empathy and respect. This involves actively listening, sharing insights or experiences that highlight potential areas for growth, and encouraging them to view challenges as opportunities for learning. By embodying these principles, which emphasizes moral and ethical development through endurance and the practice of their spiritual disciplines, I can assist my friends in their personal development journey, where discipline is understood as a pathway to fulfilling their goals in life.”

So thanks again for looking at these 31 Flavors of Wisdom and hopefully, participating in the 31 Day Wisdom Challenge, and for reading this excerpt from Cultivating Love: Wisdom for Life. As time permits, please visit the other blogs written by Dr. Ken McGill: Daily Bread for Life and “3–2- 5–4–24” for additional information that could be helpful.