{"id":18600,"date":"2025-01-21T15:57:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=18600"},"modified":"2025-01-21T15:57:34","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T20:57:34","slug":"book-review-your-future-self-will-thank-you-secrets-to-self-control-from-the-bible-and-brain-science-a-guide-for-sinners-quitters-and-procrastinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=18600","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW | Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets to Self-Control from the Bible and Brain Science (A Guide for Sinners, Quitters, and Procrastinators)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png\" alt=\"Your Future Self Mockup.png\" class=\"wp-image-18601\" style=\"width:745px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png 660w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-206x300.png 206w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve bumped into a few things by Drew Dyck on social media and have been intrigued to learn more.  I picked up a few of his books at the end of 2024 and have walked away from each of them encouraged and challenged to grow in my faith.  Dyck has an endearing writing voice that invites you into his own walk with the Lord and his desire to lead himself and his family well.  I highlighted several things while reading <em>Your Future Self Will Thank You<\/em> and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Self-control isn\u2019t just one good character trait, a nice addition to the pantheon of virtues. It\u2019s foundational. Not because it\u2019s more important than other virtues, but because the others rely upon it. Page 14<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Whenever you lose control, someone else always finds it.\u201d These were the words of my high school English teacher Mr. Sologar on our first day of class. They didn\u2019t have anything to do with literature or grammar, but I guess he wanted to kick off the class with a life lesson. It was a good one. If we acted up at home, he explained, control of our lives would swiftly transfer to our parents in the form of lost privileges or being grounded. The same was true at school. If we abused our freedom in the classroom or in the hallways\u2014and we did!\u2014we\u2019d find ourselves in the principal\u2019s office or confined to detention. If we got really crazy and decided to break the law, the legal system would step in to curtail our freedom. \u201cNo, control is never truly lost,\u201d he repeated in his thick Indian accent. \u201cIf you fail to control yourself, others will control you.\u201d Page 16<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Defeating the enemy beyond your walls is hard; subduing the enemy within is harder. Page 17<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It\u2019s easy to imagine your life\u2019s outcome as the product of a few big decisions. We envision a lone hero showing extraordinary courage at a climactic moment. Or a tragic figure losing control at a critical juncture. That might be how things work in the movies. In reality, our destinies are determined in a more mundane manner. As the writer Annie Dillard reminds us, \u201cHow we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.\u201d5 While we may be tested in dramatic moments, the fabric of life is stitched slowly, through a thousand tiny choices that end up defining our lives. The difference of those accumulated decisions is dramatic. They can add up to a life crippled by sloth and sin or to one characterized by freedom and flourishing. Page 27<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What self-control requires, ultimately, isn\u2019t control but surrender. Page 31<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThe orientation of the heart happens from the bottom up, through the formation of our habits of desire. Learning to love (God) takes practice.\u201d \u2014JAMES K. A. SMITH Page 94<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Habits aren\u2019t confined to mechanical tasks like driving. They influence our moral and spiritual behavior as well. It\u2019s by creating healthy habits that we ultimately rise above the tide of continuous temptations and live virtuously. As theologian N. T. Wright stated, \u201cVirtue is what happens when wise and courageous choices become second nature.\u201d Page 97<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It might seem like Scripture doesn\u2019t say much about habits. After all most English translations of the Bible contain only one use of the word \u201chabit.\u201d In Hebrews 10:25 it says we should \u201cnot giv[e] up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.\u201d But Scripture has plenty to say about practices and patterns of behavior. It urges us to meditate on God\u2019s Word \u201cday and night\u201d (Josh. 1:8), confess our sins (James 5:16), pray consistently (Luke 18:1), seek justice (Isa. 1:17), dwell on \u201cwhatever is lovely\u201d (Phil. 4:8), \u201cwalk humbly\u201d with God (Mic. 6:8), and \u201cspeak the truth in love\u201d (Eph. 4:15 NLT). It also contains hundreds of warnings against destructive patterns of action, including the \u201cpractice of sinning\u201d (1 John 3:9 NLT), being \u201cconform[ed] to the pattern of this world\u201d (Rom. 12:2), being \u201cdrunk on wine\u201d (Eph. 5:18), and being slack in your work (Prov. 18:9). What are these patterns of vice and virtue if not habits? Page 107<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>James K. A. Smith believes that habits aren\u2019t manmade tools for improving our behavior; they\u2019re how God chooses to shape us. We are creatures of habit, that God knows this (since he created us), and thus our gracious, redeeming God meets us where we are by giving us Spirit-empowered, heart-calibrating, habit-forming practices to retrain our loves. This is the means of the Spirit\u2019s transformation, not an alternative to Spirit-shaped sanctification. (You are What You Love) Page 109<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>C. S. Lewis wrote about this phenomenon. <em>Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible. <\/em>(Mere Christianity) Page 110<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 2017, the founding president of Facebook, Sean Parker, came out with some candid words about the social media giant he helped create. Most people think of Facebook primarily as a vehicle for reconnecting with old friends and family members. Publicly, Facebook speaks in lofty terms about making the world a better place and fostering community. But Parker said that from the outset, the goal was different: \u201cHow do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?\u201d According to Parker, \u201cexploiting a vulnerability in human psychology\u201d was the way to accomplish this feat. We need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that\u2019s going to get you to contribute more content, and that\u2019s going to get you \u2026 more likes and comments. It\u2019s a social-validation feedback loop \u2026 exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with. Page 173<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wisdom Pyramid by Brett McCracken<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve bumped into a few things by Drew Dyck on social media and have been intrigued to learn more. I picked up a few of his books at the end of 2024 and have walked away from each of them encouraged and challenged to grow in my faith. Dyck has an endearing writing voice that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,35,25,16,19,23,28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-creative","category-education","category-family","category-funny","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}