Better Than Everনমুনা

HABITS

Habits are an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand, we can slip into a habit without even noticing…the next thing we know, it’s something we’ve done consistently for years (whether we really want to or not). On the other hand, it can take weeks, months, or even years of serious effort to form a new positive habit (or to break a bad one). Unfortunately, those bad habits are so much easier to form than good and helpful ones.

But, here’s the good news for you and I right now: when our world is pushed into chaos, it creates a prime opportunity to re-evaluate and re-form our habits. So much about our typical routines have been disrupted, which provides a great chance to ask yourself what you want to do every day (rather than just falling into what you’ve always done). Have you struggled for years to develop a Bible reading habit? What better time to form one than when you don’t have to rush out the door to school every morning? Have you wanted to break the habit of snapping at your parents or siblings all the time? Well, now you have so many more hours in the day to practice responding with patience and grace. 

And here’s how this can help us become better than ever: the habits you work on right now can continue once life gets back to normal. Think of this as sort of an unexpected habit boot-camp. You have extra time and energy right now to form the habits you want and to break some of the ones you don’t. Practice that day after day during this season and whenever you get to go back to school, work, practice, or wherever, you’ll have all these months of habit-forming work under your belt. You can re-enter normal life so much closer to the person you want to be than when all this first started. So, what habit do you need to start today? Which habits do you need to start breaking?