CHARACTER
Self-Mastery
Self-mastery … is the ultimate test of our character.
Self-mastery requires self-determination and strength of character. It enhances our own gifts and talents in a remarkable way.
Every person has the challenge of controlling his or her thoughts, appetites, speech, temper, and desires. Willpower is necessary so that irritations do not take over our emotions.
Self-mastery is a challenge for every individual. Only we can control our appetites and passions.
Self-mastery cannot be bought by money or fame. It requires climbing out of the deep valleys of our lives and scaling our own Mount Everests.
In its simplest terms, self-mastery is doing those things we should do and not doing those things we should not do. It requires strength, willpower, and honesty.
Mastery of our own private thoughts.
In this realm, conscience is the only referee that can blow the whistle when we get out of control. If not bridled, our thoughts can run wild. Our minds are a part of us that really require discipline and control.
Mastery of the spoken word.
Samuel Johnson suggested, “language is the dress of thought,” 1 then the language we are hearing on television, in the movies, and even in our schools is a poor commentary on our current thinking.
Mastery of all physical appetites.
Harry Emerson Fosdick provides an important context for self-control: “Self-denial … is not the negative, forbidding thing that often we shake our heads about. In one sense there is no such thing as self-denial, for what we call such is the necessary price we pay for things on which our hearts are set.” 2
[I have a favorite quote: Sacrifice is giving up something you want, for something you want more. Is this not true? Thus our self-denial or path of self-mastery really leads to true freedom, true strength.]
Self-denial is not restrictive. It is liberating. It is the pathway to freedom. It is strength. It is an essential element of purity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”
We should not look for excuses when we lose our self-control. Even though our circumstances may be challenging, we can all strive for self-mastery. Great personal satisfaction comes from doing so. Self-mastery is related to spirituality, which is the central quest of mortality.
David O. McKay once said: “Spirituality is the consciousness of victory over self, and of communion with the Infinite.
Spirituality impels one to conquer difficulties and acquire more and more strength. To feel one’s faculties unfolding and truth expanding the soul is one of life’s sublimest experiences.”3
1. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 4th ed., ed. Angela Partington, 368.
2. The Meaning of Service (1920), 83.
3. Gospel Ideals (1953), 390.
From: James E. Faust, “The Power of Self-Mastery,” Ensign, May 2000, 43
