Habits

Why does cultivating a good habit take so much conscientious effort when you can fall into a bad habit with such ease?

A repeated course of action carves a path in our brains and from there on it is like a rut in the road–so easy for us to fall back onto that path. Sometimes that is good news — for good habits, of course. Those pesky bad habits? Well, they are annoying and sometimes clearly destructive.

What habits have you developed through the years? Have you thought back to “the early days” of that behavior? Do you have one bad habit that seems to pursue you with great intensity? It isn’t true, of course, that it pursues you but if you have one, you know it is hard to shake it off. It seems to attach itself to you — it has a grip on you. The more I describe this the more I am getting creeped out. Initially it is something you invite into your life, you get “used to” it being in your life, it brings you “comfort” and then pretty soon your world revolves around it even when you want it gone.

The more you choose something the less of a choice in choosing it you have in the end. Exactly when does that happen in the course of the development of a habit?

And what encouragement do we give others to shake their bad habits when we don’t find success in ridding ourselves of our own?

What is that pesky bad habit you want to be a distant memory? Have you prayed and asked God for His help? Do you have a person or two for accountability? Have you mapped out a deliberate strategy? Ask God to pester you about this until it is something you overcome. The Holy Spirit will surely nudge you with gentle and not-so-gentle reminders. What is holding you back?

I don’t know about you but I am asking God to help me carve new pathways in my brain!