Habits
On a recent trip to Ohio, at the hotel where we stayed, the soap dish was place on the right-hand side of the sink. In our bathroom at home, it’s on the left side. I could have moved the hotel’s soap dish to the left side, but there wasn’t much room for it there, so I left it on the right side. After a few days, I got used to where it was, and didn’t think much about it until we returned home. The first time I went to use the soap, I reached to the right and quickly discovered that the soap wasn’t there–it was on the left, just as it had always been. What had happened was that in the two weeks I was gone, I had developed a habit of reaching to the right for the soap and would need to readjust my thinking.
Habits occur when we do things over and over, but when we stop doing them, even for a short time, the habit is broken. There are good habits, like brushing our teeth or washing our hands. Also going to church, reading the Bible, and praying are good habits. However, in order to maintain those habits, we need to continually do them. If we stop doing a good habit for any length of time, it soon is no longer a habit.
Some people also develop what most would consider bad habits, like smoking, biting one’s fingernails, or using foul language. Some habits, while not actually bad, can be annoying: tapping one’s foot, whistling, or popping your fingers. There are, of course, many other good, bad, and annoying habits I haven’t mentioned.
The thing about habits is that they can either improve one’s life or make it more difficult. The habit of going to church, reading the Bible, and praying, are all things every Christian needs to do. However, when those habits are broken, then our spiritual life and focus on God becomes diminished. What habits in your life have made you a better person? Are there some habits you need to break?