Temperance is not a word we hear of much these days, but the meaning of it fully does not describes man today. Temperance: Moderation, self-control, self-discipline. Almost everything we do, we have to have bigger, faster, more powerful. We have too many phones (cell), too many gas stations, too many stores, too many choices. My first experience with choices came when I entered a Toys ‘R Us store many (eons) years ago. I was with our daughter at the time. I stood in utter amazement as I walked through row after row, shelf after shelf, of ‘stuff’ piled high to the ceiling to entertain our children. This store was bigger than the high school I went to. My brain could not register the enormity of 'things' produced just for children. I left buying nothing. The swapping of Christmas gifts has become a rat race that is not remotely related to the Blessed Advent. Easter is about bunnies. Our waste is incredible. Music of inappropriate melodies suffocate the ears. Books that delight every sensory desire. Our government has enough bureaus so that in the red tape of bureaucracy, bureau number one hundred is referred back to bureau number one. We are without a doubt a people out of control. The divinely implanted powers of God got out of hand and turned from their normal uses, to servants of the flesh and the devil. Perhaps we have reached the point of no return. The truth of the matter is that when mankind fell, the effect was the loss of control. Every sin is but a natural good perverted or carried to extremes. Self-respect has turned into pride, natural appetite becomes gluttony, love degenerates into lechery, pride sinks to flattery, determination hardens into obstinacy. Temperance brings harmony to the total personality into one accord with God’s plan for the whole person. In a life directed toward moderation, there can be no place for excess. Temperance is not automatic. It is listed among the fruit of the Spirit, but it requires prayer, Bible reading, cross-bearing, hard discipline, obedience, and self-denial before it can be a fixed part of our character. One who has achieved true self-control will expect to be out of step with the world. Those given to excess will not take kindly to the temperate soul living among them. One who practices temperance will have a hard time on terranean soil as they live landlocked in a landmine of excess. JmP