2013 Annual Review

Greetings, dear readers!

Well, another year has flown by, and hopefully we've all grown a bit wiser as well as a bit older. This time last year I was out with my brother playing pool in Box Hill, only to discover when we got back home that a kangaroo had landed in our backyard!

It's time to take stock and look back at what has been another eventful year, as well as look forward to what (God-willing!) the next 365 days will have in store.

As usual, it was a packed year for MUCS. Our first engagement in May involved two sublime sacred works, Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna and Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, a piece of music that is very close to my heart. Then in June we hosted the magnificent Morgan State University Choir, who treated us to a wonderful evening of authentic and uplifting gospel spiritual music. It was such a privilege to sing with them. I also had the wonderful chance to participate in the Lord of the Rings concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). In October we presented some highlights of Richard Wagner's music in a spectacular concert dedicated to the 200th anniversary of his birth. We have just finished a busier-than-usual Christmas as well, and now look forward to our upcoming European tour.

I also thankfully managed to find casual relief teaching (CRT) at Brentwood Secondary College and McKinnon Secondary College through my connections at the Association of German Teachers of Victoria (AGTV), and am pleased to report that I have more work lined up for next year at Viewbank College.

Alongside the casual relief teaching work, I was also completing my Master of Teaching (Secondary), which somehow I passed with flying colours, even though I handed some of my papers in after the due date.

But without doubt the biggest highlight of the year has been meeting Vanessa, a God-fearing young woman with whom I share much (almost too much!) in common, and have come to love more and more as I get to know her.

So those were the major highlights of my year. Here are some of things I look forward to in 2014:

• Our upcoming European tour. 
• There will be two major family weddings happening this year: The first will be my cousin Vivian in May, and then my sister Elise in September.
• Developing my relationship with Vanessa; and
• Hunting for, and hopefully obtaining, a full-time teaching job (in either German or ESL)!

Now I am off to Vanessa's place to see in the New Year with her before she flies off to New Zealand tomorrow with her parents. I wish everyone all the best for a successful 2014!

For the last time in 2013,
Cheers and God bless!

The End of One Chapter, the Beginning of Another (Part 2)

Greetings, dear readers!

I hope that this second part of my post finds you happy, healthy and not too harassed by the hectic nature of the festive season.

It wouldn't be a complete post from me if at least one of two things weren't included: a sports report or a book review. In this post I will do a bit of both.

As some of you might remember, I finished reading Julie Rose's English translation of Les Misérables in November. There is so much I would love to say about this literary masterpiece, but I will keep things short and simply say that to date, it has been the most intense reading experience of my life. For me, Les Misérables is a work that ranks second only to the Bible, and the difficult passages are worth persisting when you get to the last hundred or so pages. Somehow in those pages the quality and emotional power of the prose rises to greater and greater levels, all the way to the bittersweet ending.

Now for a brief sports report, focusing on the current Ashes series. Who would have thought that at the start of the tour the Australians would be going into the Boxing Day Test having already secured back the urn and - with the withdrawals of English stalwarts Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann - be looking at a potential 5-0 clean sweep? Certainly not me, and I doubt I am alone. With the exception of the first day of the first Test in Brisbane and England's brief resistance in the last innings of the third Test in Perth, the cricket has gone Australia's way.

As another Christmas comes around, it doesn't hurt to be reminded what is and isn't important at Christmas. Last year I reminded readers that the word Christmas comes from a combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass". In case you aren't aware, a Mass is a church service which involves the Eucharist, also known as The Lord's Supper.

Tonight, in many churches in Australia and around the world, Christians will observe Midnight Mass as part of their Christmas celebrations. I will be taking part again as a chorister for Midnight Mass at St George's Anglican Church in Malvern, and would not be surprised if I am the only one of my peers who goes up to receive the Lord's Supper.

Of course, while not everyone will celebrate Mass, Christ must remain at the very centre of Christmas celebrations. It is a time to reflect on God's coming down to earth in human form in those passages of Holy Scripture:

• the prophecy of Isaiah; 
• Gabriel's visit to Mary;
• Christ's birth;
• the announcement to the shepherds, which for me contains much poignant symbolism since Jesus' legendary descendant King David was a shepherd, and Jesus would call himself the Good Shepherd;
• the journey and worship of the wise men from the east; and
• the cruelty of Herod, often overlooked because of its dreadful nature.    

In the commercialism of the season, with all the shopping for presents and the preparation, cooking and consumption of festive food, it is easy to overlook the role of Jesus Christ and have no room for him in our hearts, just like there was no room in the inn on the night of his birth.

I'm not saying that these things are bad; indeed, one of the indulgences I allow myself at Christmas is Lebkuchen, those delicious German baked goods which resemble gingerbread. I am simply sick of the whole commercial side of Christmas, because I have worked at Big W during the mad Christmas retail rush for the last five years, and hope that this year will be the final time.

This year's annual Carols concerts at St Paul's Cathedral were arguably the best ever, at least in my experience. We had a special surprise for our audience, bringing in members of the City of Melbourne Highland Pipe Band to perform "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Little Drummer Boy" with us. While bagpipes are certainly not everybody's cup of tea, they certainly contributed to the special atmosphere of the concerts.

This Christmas will be an especially memorable one for me, mainly because it will be the first one (hopefully of many) with my girlfriend Vanessa. Although Mum initially said no to letting Vanessa join us at our extended family Christmas lunch tomorrow, this was before she had met Vanessa. But now that she has, she has changed her mind, and that to me says a lot about the impression Vanessa has made on my mum. It was also God's roundabout answer to my prayer that she be able to join us!

I look forward to introducing her to my Dad and sister, as well as my cousins, trying some of her food for the first time (she's made a pasta salad and fruit cake!), and exchanging presents with her. Of course, I'm not telling here what I got for her. I'll share about that in my next post.

In this season, and indeed the coming year, may those of us who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ be able to say, according to that great hymn:

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee. 

So I wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas. My next post will be my annual review.
Cheers and God bless!

The End of One Chapter, the Beginning of Another (Part 1)

Greetings, dear readers!

Due to a combination of busyness and "can't be bothered" attitude, it has been a long time between blog postings, so there's a fair bit to catch up on. To make it digestible, I have split this into two posts.
Now you may be wondering about my choice of title, but for me it is a relevant one given what has happened over the last few months, in at least two ways.

First, I have completed the Master of Teaching (Secondary) with flying colours! For my final semester, I studied two subjects which focused on Content and Language Integrated Learning, otherwise known as CLIL: EDUC90481 - Content and Language Integrated Pedagogy, and EDUC90482 - Linguistics and Sociolinguistics of CLIL.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I AM NO LONGER SINGLE! I'll say more about how that happened later.

For those of you who don't know, CLIL is a recently (that is, 1990's) developed bilingual approach to language education which has its roots in European and Canadian bilingual classroom programs. The basic idea of CLIL is that at least one subject in the curriculum, e.g. mathematics, history or science, is taught in a foreign language. The foreign language is usually one of the languages taught at the school.

CLIL has been trialled and implemented in some schools in Victoria; my teacher for both CLIL subjects this semester, Margaret Gearon, and one of my previous lecturers, Russell Cross, coordinated a research report about CLIL in schools for the Victorian Government.

I am pleased to report that I received H1s (First-Class Honors) for both subjects, despite submitting some papers after the due date. I attended the graduation ceremony on Thursday with my parents, and was delighted to finally wear the trencher (square hat).

The ceremony took place at the historic Royal Exhibition Building. The weather was lovely, and it was great to catch up with friends and classmates. There was a minor moment of mayhem when it came to my turn to receive my certificate; when my name was called I was supposed to doff my hat to the chancellor, but I held onto the tip of my hat a slight fraction too long, and the hat came off my head! Fortunately I was able to scramble and catch it before it fell to the floor. I put it back on my hat and went to get my certificate, and then I did a little victory jig after coming off the stage and walking back to my seat.

Now to the news you've been waiting for (unless you know already), and that is that I now have a GIRLFRIEND!! Her name is Vanessa and we've been officially dating since late October. I guess I should start from the beginning about how we even got together, which is a story in itself.

The path to Vanessa began with a status that I posted on Facebook on September 19. One of my old school friends had just tied the knot at the end of a whirlwind, but grounded, romance, and other friends and family members were also marrying or getting engaged, and starting or adding to families. In the midst of all this, I felt the urge to pour out my heart:

As I see my friends and family members pairing off, proposing, marrying, and starting families, the waiting game becomes more and more difficult. Of course, I am thrilled for all of them, and I know I should enjoy being single and "free" at this time in my life. But I hope I don't have to wait too much longer to find my life partner.
So please pray for God to give me MORE patience to be the right guy for the right girl at the right time. Thanks everyone.

A week later, one of my old school friends messaged me privately. He had read my post and told me that knew of a girl who might be just for me. I agreed with him that it couldn't hurt to give things a try and see what happens. So he got in touch with his colleague, who is one of Vanessa's former teachers.

I also asked my friend two questions which were important for me:
1) Is the girl a Christian? and
2) Have you had experience doing this sort of thing before?
To both questions, he answered "Yes".

After two-and-a-bit weeks, I finally got a response from my friend saying that Vanessa was also keen to give it a try. He found me her profile and I sent her a Facebook friend request. Soon after she accepted my friend request, we began chatting via Facebook messenger, and found out that we had a lot in common, besides being Chinese and Christian.

Our first date was set for October 26, and we met up in the evening to go see the romantic comedy About Time. Since then, we have met up several times and done various things together, and our relationship has slowly grown and developed. Just last Friday, I was finally able to introduce her to various members of my family. And yesterday I visited her church with her.

Let me briefly introduce Vanessa: She is Taiwanese Chinese, born in Taipei, but moved to New Zealand when she was young, and did her secondary schooling here in Melbourne. She is bilingual in Mandarin and English, and is trained in hospitality and cooking.

Now, although I think there are prettier girls going around than Vanessa (and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that!), what matters for me is that she has the right heart. God knows best; He does not always give us what we desire, but He will always give us what we need. With regards to outward appearances, there are two verses from the Bible that come to my mind. The first is when God is showing Samuel who to appoint as King Saul's successor:

For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7b, ESV) 

The second verse comes from that famous passage in Proverbs 31 which describes the characteristics of an excellent wife:

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30, ESV)  

We will undergo our first significant period of separation in January. Although we will see in the New Year together at Vanessa's place, she leaves later in the day with her family for New Zealand. By the time she arrives back in Melbourne, I will have already departed for Europe. And on the day I return from Europe, she flies off again to New Zealand with her family for a friend's wedding!

We have already planned to catch up on Valentine's Day. I hope that nothing comes between us during our time apart, and that God will enable us to somehow grow even closer. After all, don't they say absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Alright, that's more than enough for one post. Stay tuned for the next part!

Cheers and God bless.

Teaching Stint Debrief and other news

Greetings, dear readers!

As some of you already know, I recently undertook a four-week full-time replacement teaching position at McKinnon Secondary College. Last week was my final week, and it capped off what was a busy but beneficial experience for my first serious engagement as a high school teacher.
I have had some time this week to relax and reflect on the four weeks, and this is what I feel I did well or showed progress:

• Building rapport with staff and students was one of my strong points as a student teacher. That has not changed thankfully, and some of the students I taught even asked me to stay and become their teacher! I am especially grateful, however, to have gotten along really well with the teacher who is the Head of Languages at McKinnon, Andrea Fowler.
• Although I had my share of "forgettable" lessons (doesn't every starting teacher?), there were a few lessons which gave me the confidence that I was heading on the right track of providing structured lessons with clear learning goals. I also tried a few activities which, with a bit of tweaking, appeared to engage the class.
• There was also noticeable progress made in my management of classroom behaviour. I felt that some improvement was shown in distinguishing between the role of teacher and role of student. I kept some students behind after class to have a stern chat, and even gave a detention. While these are not things to be proud about (Teachers enjoy giving detentions ... NOT!), they do mark significant milestones in my progression towards being comfortable as a disciplinarian.    

And here are the areas for ongoing improvement:

• Finding ways to help disengaged students in class, or newly-arrived students (such was the case in two of my Year 8 classes) who speak English as an Additional Language and have no prior experience of learning German.
• Making clear first to myself then to the students the consequences for not behaving appropriately in class, and establishing expectation at the START of the lesson before any incidents arise. It's time to look again at the advice of Bill Rogers, the first person I turn to for help in classroom management. 
• Giving myself enough time toward the end of a lesson to review what I have tried to teach, and then finding creative ways to test whether or not students have learned/remembered the language taught. 

Now some of you may be wondering: where to from here? Well, I'm very pleased to announce that I will be continuing on as a teacher at McKinnon Secondary for the rest of the year, albeit in a reduced role. The deal is that I come in on Mondays and teach Andrea's classes for the day. I will be in constant discussion with her regarding where her classes are up to, and what she would like me to cover with them. Hopefully she will also give me some room to try some of my own activities with her classes. For the rest of the week I will be either relief teaching at McKinnon or Brentwood, or be back working at Big W.

Not only have I gained invaluable experience from the last four weeks, but I have also earned a decent amount of money, most of which has gone towards my airfares for the MUCS European Tour in January!
I can now confirm my basic itinerary: I will depart Melbourne on 8 January with Singapore Airlines and arrive in Amsterdam on the morning of the following day after a brief stopover in Singapore.

In Holland, I will catch up with friends and family before taking the train to Frankfurt on January 14 to meet up with the rest of the group. Our tour starts on the 15th and ends in Venice on February 5.
From Venice I will fly with Vueling Airlines back to Amsterdam with a brief stopover in Barcelona along the way. I will return to Melbourne with Singapore Airlines on the morning of February 6, scheduled to land in Melbourne on the evening of Friday February 7.

The return flight with Singapore Airlines cost AUD 2,275, and the one-way flight from Venice to Amsterdam cost 159 euros (nearly AUD 240 at the time of purchase). Now the only thing left to do is find a good deal on travel insurance, and pay off the remaining amount of the tour fee, and then it's a few weeks of giddy anticipation of heading back to Europe for the first time in over five years! I can't wait!!

And now to sports (You can skip this part if you find it boring). First of all, congratulations to the British and Irish Lions for winning the decider in Sydney. What made it slightly more bearable for me was that most of the squad was from Wales, a rugby nation which I admire greatly. Although the final score was 41-16, the Wallabies were in the game until about midway through the second half. Consequently, Robbie Deans has been replaced as Wallabies coach by Ewen McKenzie.

McKenzie (pictured right) is a former Wallaby with an impressive coaching record; he played in the 1991 World Cup winning team and coached the Queensland Reds to the Super Rugby title in 2011. Australian rugby fans are hoping he can translate club success into international trophies. McKenzie's first assignment will be the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship, in which Australia take on New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. I wish him all the best.

In cricket, the old enemy England has retained the Ashes after winning the Fourth Test in Durham. At least with the draw in Manchester, we won't lose the series 5-0 as I initially feared. However, the Aussies have a lot to work to do, especially in the batting department, before the Poms come here for the return series.

I want to finish this post by briefly reviewing two books which I recently used for one of my uni assignments: the graphic novel Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley (See customer reviews from Goodreads here and from Amazon here); and the young adult fiction novel It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (See customer reviews from Goodreads here and from Amazon here).

Relish is Lucy Knisley's autobiographical account of growing up in a family obsessed with food. Knisley is an illustrator by profession, but from this book it's clear that food (and the enjoyment of it!) is her number one passion. If you want to find out more about her, go to http://www.lucyknisley.com.

I came across this book when looking through the graphic novel section of a New York Times Sunday Book Review. I liked what I saw in the sample pages, and the rest of the book did not disappoint. Each chapter recounts a particular episode in Knisley's life, narrated in an honest, but very humorous and engaging style, accompanied by the author's own illustrations. NOTE: Look out especially for the recipes that Knisley includes at the end of the chapters! I have included a sample below:

If you have read The Perks of Being a Wallflower (mentioned in one of my earlier posts) and enjoyed it, you should take a look at It's Kind of a Funny Story. The plot basically deals with New York teen Craig Gilner, who checks himself into a psychiatric ward, suffering from depression and on the verge of suicide. During his stay, he meets an assortment of special characters who help him find a purpose to live. As a side-note, the author Ned Vizzini had spent time in psychiatric care before he wrote the book, and uses his first-hand experience to give Craig a special depth of character. For more info about Ned, you can visit his website at http://www.nedvizzini.com

Before I sign off this post, I just want to let you know that I have created a profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn. Feel free to check out my profile here and connect with me if you like.

OK, that's it from me for now. Cheers and God bless!

A busy mid-year break

Greetings, dear readers!

After handing in my final assignment for the semester on Monday, I have been able to relax and start planning my lessons for the first four weeks of next term as a replacement teacher at McKinnon Secondary College. As I mentioned in my previous post, I visited the school to meet the staff, observe a few classes, and fill in some paperwork. Everyone I met was nice and friendly, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one of my old classmates from Donvale Christian College is a teacher at McKinnon!

Amazingly, the day after my visit, I received a phone call from another school, Brentwood Secondary College in Glen Waverley, asking if I could come in on the following Monday and Tuesday to replace a German teacher who was taking leave! I was, of course, quite surprised, but again I found out that my details had reached one of the teachers on the AGTV network, and so here's a lesson for teachers-to-be: Never underestimate the power of subject-specific professional teacher networks, especially when looking for teaching work!

But yes, I can hardly wait to start at McKinnon. I have been given a full-time load during the four weeks, and will be in charge of seven classes: two Grade 7, four Grade 8, and one Grade 9. After the four weeks are over, I will hopefully get ongoing work as a casual relief teacher at either McKinnon or Brentwood; it will depend on who calls me first!

Just before my teaching stint begins, I will be performing as a chorus member in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's (MSO) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers concerts at Hamer Hall. I was originally not singing in it, but the opportunity arose due to a series of circumstances. First, some tenors from the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic (RMP) Chorus pulled out. Second, our conductor was under contractual obligation to provide 100 singers, and so needed replacements. Third, the dates of the concert (especially the Sunday one being in the afternoon) meant that I was available to help out.

It's a very busy time of the year for sports followers. Wimbledon is approaching its conclusion, while the Tour de France is now well under way. Tomorrow evening is the third and final test match of the rugby series between Australia and the British and Irish Lions. The series has been a very memorable one so far; the Lions won the first test in Brisbane 23-21 before Australia responded in Melbourne last week with a 16-15 victory. In both games, the other team had an opportunity to win the match with a penalty goal at the very end of the game, but missed. The final game is in Sydney, and if the last two games are any indicator, the result will be very close.

Next Wednesday, the Ashes test cricket series between Australia and England starts in Nottingham. Up until last week, I was so pessimistic about Australia's chances that I would not have minded if we had lost, as long as we didn't go down 5-0. But Darren Lehmann's appointment as new head coach seems to have brought about a change in fortunes, especially in the batting department. The Aussies have performed well in their warm-up matches, and will hopefully bring that form into the first test. Now my expectations have raised slightly to the point where I will be disappointed if we don't come away with at least one win.

I was hoping to add a book review or two here, but as this post is getting quite long, I'll talk about those in another post.

Cheers and God bless!

Queen's Birthday Mid-year Report

Greetings, dear readers!

I hope this post, which has been long in coming, finds you in good health and spirits. Today we celebrated the Queen's Birthday Holiday. Now, given that the Queen's actual birthday is on April 21 (two days after yours truly!), you might wonder why we hold this public holiday on the second Monday of June.

I did some research on this holiday (i.e. browsed Wikipedia) and found out that it has been celebrated in Australia since 1788. Until 1936, the holiday was held on the monarch's actual birthday. Thereafter it has been observed by all states and territories, except Western Australia, on the second Monday of June. I assume that this is so it does not mess with the working week.

This is also the time when uni students are hitting the books and preparing for mid-year  exams. Thankfully, I don't have any exams, but I do have a major 3,000-word assignment that is due in just over two weeks.

Just after the start of first semester, I swapped out of one of my subjects (EDUC90048 - Second Language Teaching Methodology) and into another subject, EDUC90683 - Reading: From Selection to Response. This subject, which was conducted over four Saturdays, will hopefully enable me to teach Literature, along with my other learning areas - German and English as an Additional Language.

Speaking of reading, I have just reached page 800 of Julie Rose's translation of Les Misérables, which means I am roughly two-thirds of the way through the book. I am also just over half-way through the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. So far it has proven to be a lot more readable and gripping than I imagined.

In between these two great novels, I have read three wonderful books, but time does

not allow me to review each book here. Those three books are:
* Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (the original, i.e. non-modernized version);
* Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower; and
* Mark Obmascik's The Big Year. (Links are to Amazon reviews)

I will finish this entry with some exciting news. Since my last post, I have been struggling to find relief teaching work. However, a couple of weeks ago, I attended a Professional Development conference run by the Modern Language Teachers' Association of Victoria (MLTAV). There I bumped into one of my teacher mentors from last year, who is also currently the vice-president of the Association of German Teachers of Victoria (AGTV), and she introduced me to the president of the AGTV. They recommended me to send them an email summarizing my qualifications and availability to do relief teaching, which they could then send to the other teachers on the AGTV network.

I did as they suggested, and last Tuesday I received an email from one of the German teachers at McKinnon Secondary College, asking if I wanted to take up a short-term replacement position at the start of Third Term for 3-and-a-half weeks, teaching German from Years 7 to 9. Although the school is a considerable distance from home, I have heard many good things about it, most notably that it has a strong music program.

Tomorrow morning I will take a test drive to see how long it takes to get there (I forgot to mention earlier, I now have my own car!). Then on Wednesday I will formally visit McKinnon Secondary to meet the staff, observe a few classes, and hopefully get any necessary paperwork filled in. I am so thankful to God for opening this door, and any prayer would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers and God bless!

Summer Holiday Update

Greetings, dear readers!

I hope you have all had a refreshing holiday season and are ready to plunge back enthusiastically into your work!

Yesterday I received my official Postgraduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) from the post, which was a nice reminder to find a relief teaching job, and soon. I received an email last month from the co-Head of Secondary at my old school, Donvale Christian College, alerting me to the fact that there is a long list of relief teachers at the school. In other words, given my lack of experience, I need to look elsewhere and strongly consider signing with a relief teaching agency if I want regular relief teaching work. 

As I have yet to find regular relief teaching work, I have decided to use my time to volunteer in the Peer Mentoring Program for those students starting the Postgraduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary) this year. The Program was supposed to start last week, but due to administrative issues, I and my other fellow mentors have not even received our groups yet. We're hoping this will be sorted out very soon.

My summer holiday has been mostly enjoyable. I have resolved to read more "classics", along with the Bible and other things. I am currently reading Les Miserables (a recent translation by Julie Rose, see the Amazon review here) and Jane Eyre, with Anna Karenina and a few others to follow. I have also resumed riding my bicycle, after many years. At least now there are better bike tracks around my local neighbourhood, and I've taken a number of scenic shots from the rides I've been on.

A couple of weeks ago, I embarked on what was easily my biggest bike ride yet. I rode from my place to Eltham train station and took the train to the city. After lunch with friends, I rode the Capital City Trail, which starts and ends at Flinders Street Station and goes around the edge of the city. From there I took the train back to Eltham and rode back home. All up, I clocked up nearly 60 kilometres and was absolutely exhausted. I have to thank God for keeping me safe and guiding my instinct to stop every time I went off track.

On Friday I plan to ride over to the community bike shed in Brunswick which forms part of the CERES Environmental Park. There I will learn how to fix and maintain my bike, which is in need of some tuning up, especially with the brakes and gears.

For our new Bible study small groups at church this year, we were each asked to think of a Spiritual Goal for the whole year. I've decided that my Spiritual Goal for 2013 will be to cultivate the fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23, with an emphasis on self-control. Self-control can basically be defined as the ability not to give in to one's emotions or impulses, especially negative ones such as anger and lust. It also means committing to the right course of action, such as going to bed early instead of spending too much time on the computer, something I've been guilty of on many occasions! I could go into a few examples in the Bible where self-control, or lack of it, defined people's destinies (thinking of Cain, Moses, and King David among others), but I don't have space here. Maybe that will have to be for another post.

Cheers and God bless!