Are you looking for a practical way to develop more patience, peace, and self-control when life gets chaotic? We take a look at the anime character Mimi’s (Always a Catch) intense discipline to show how staying “in step” with your daily routines yields life-changing, positive results.

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In the anime Always a Catch, we meet Mimi, a character who has spent the last five episodes getting engaged, making friends, and getting into various shenanigans. In a recent episode, we saw her and her fiancé outside while Mimi practiced her family’s martial arts. She goes through the stances and demonstrates her strength, practicing the motions she will need if she ever has to fight. Although she is tired from a lack of sleep, she continues because she loves her family’s martial arts and it brings her joy. Practicing makes her think of her father and feel connected to her family even though she lives far away. Today we are talking about discipline and the results of that discipline.

The Meaning of Discipline

As we saw, Mimi is incredibly disciplined in her martial arts, so much so that she uses it naturally even when she is not practicing. Whether she actually has to fight someone or just thinks she might have to, she stays ready by practicing every morning. We have seen the fruit of that discipline throughout the series, such as when she was kidnapped or when her future mother-in-law was being shot at with arrows.

We have discussed having discipline in faith before, praying every day, reading the Bible, and studying the Word. However, the fruit produced by that discipline is something we have not discussed in a long time. As Christians, the fruit we should produce if we are disciplined in our faith is found in Galatians 5:22-25.

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The Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We know the aspects of our faith that help us grow stronger. The result of practicing these disciplines is that certain things naturally flow out of us, including:

• Love for others.
• Joy (not just happiness).
• Peace.
• Patience, though that is often one that requires more work to grow.
• Kindness and Goodness.

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Walking in Step

Verse 25 lays down a challenge: if we live in the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. This means that if we say we are Christians, we must walk in sync with what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and with others. Because we are human, we do not always do what we should; we might fall behind or get a little ahead of the Spirit.

That is the point of spiritual disciplines. The more we read the Bible, pray, and study, the more in step we get with the Holy Spirit. We can think about being in step with the Holy Spirit like a three-legged race. He is helping us as we walk, but we must ask ourselves: is He dragging us, or are we striving along with Him?