"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out."
-- Romans 12:1-2 (The Message Remix)
habit is such a funny thing. spent needles, cigarette butts, spitting bits of freshly-torn fingernails, toilet seats in the upright position…for some reason when the word “habit” is used it is automatically put into a bad context. you never think good habit…it’s always a bad habit. when i hear “habit” i usually tend to think of things done by people that are not particularly positive. chances are you do, too. habits like cussing, lying, grinding teeth, drinking from the carton, clicking a pen over and over and over and over, cleaning ears with sharp instruments like, say, keys or a light saber, burning anything that appears flammable, drinking, sleeping while driving…it’s incredible the things that become habitual.
i sucked my thumb when i was a kid. heck, i sucked my thumb into my teenage years, long after i became aware it was “embarrassing” to do so. not that i cared. i had been told and told to quit, but i didn’t i didn’t want to. “you’ll have buckteeth” they’d say, but i wouldn’t give in. people tried anything…bribes, rewards, punishments, that terrible liquid that evil parents put on your nails and tastes like a mix of ear wax and car tires…but i wouldn’t budge. no, i was strong willed. well, maybe just stupid. either way… i would continue to suck my thumb and get buckteeth.
a habit is an act acquired by experience and performed regularly and automatically. a habit is influenced not only by elements that bring the behavior to the surface but also by rewards or punishments that follow the behavior. self-destructive habits can be eliminated by a number of means such as behavior modification and counter-conditioning techniques. These involve increasing one’s awareness of a habit, interrupting it’s performance so that it no longer seems such a natural thing to, and reinforcing another act as the competitor. habits involve no conscious choice among alternatives. i heard once that if you do something for twenty-one days it is likely to become a habit. don’t believe me? try it. do something for twenty-one days and if you forget do it when you think about it to reinforce it into your head. it will work. eventually it will become second nature and you will just do it until you do the reverse and make yourself stop. for some bad habit, there was never any intentional formation. for example, i have never heard of an alcoholic who started drinking one day by saying “okay just twenty-one days and i’ll drink this stuff like water.” most nail biters probably don’t say “man i love the taste of my nails and the feeling of tearing them down so far my fingers bleed and burn in pain. i should do this more often.” no, it’s just something we do. good habits seem to be more difficult to manage. for example, flossing…the almighty chore. i can’t start. i just can’t. i have decided it’s easier to quit smoking then to start flossing. i just can’t get it going. the key is because i don’t want to and i think about that. why don’t i think i don’t want to do things when it’s bad like cussing, biting my nails, anything…?
i’ll just get to the point now. look at what i said. make any sense? i’m not saying you need to analize what a bad person you are because of your bad habits. become aware of them, yes. try to eliminate them, yes. but we’re not perfect and no one should expect that of us. even more importantly we need to start good habits. reading our bible for example. not that it should be something we just do for the heck of it but we should still do it regularly….daily…multiple times daily. not even reading a bible but doing some form of devotions whatever that my be. praying is another one. don’t let your prayers be regulated to a certain time of day or a certain pattern you always pray in saying the same thing every time. give it meaning. make it something special. give that as much thought as you’d give what you’re going to wear in a certain day. give God as much time as you give your make-up in the morning. do you realize how much time we waste? why? for what? to look good? to feel a shallow, false sense of self-worth or so that we can fit in with the “majority?” why do that? Jesus didn’t and i don’t think He regrets it. we try to hard for the pointless, needless things in life. we strive so hard for personal meaning and worldly acceptance when we can’t even accept ourselves and when we can’t even focus on what it is that we need to accept…God. everything about Him. try it. twenty-one days. i triple-dog-dare you.
believe. live.
- david
-- Romans 12:1-2 (The Message Remix)
habit is such a funny thing. spent needles, cigarette butts, spitting bits of freshly-torn fingernails, toilet seats in the upright position…for some reason when the word “habit” is used it is automatically put into a bad context. you never think good habit…it’s always a bad habit. when i hear “habit” i usually tend to think of things done by people that are not particularly positive. chances are you do, too. habits like cussing, lying, grinding teeth, drinking from the carton, clicking a pen over and over and over and over, cleaning ears with sharp instruments like, say, keys or a light saber, burning anything that appears flammable, drinking, sleeping while driving…it’s incredible the things that become habitual.
i sucked my thumb when i was a kid. heck, i sucked my thumb into my teenage years, long after i became aware it was “embarrassing” to do so. not that i cared. i had been told and told to quit, but i didn’t i didn’t want to. “you’ll have buckteeth” they’d say, but i wouldn’t give in. people tried anything…bribes, rewards, punishments, that terrible liquid that evil parents put on your nails and tastes like a mix of ear wax and car tires…but i wouldn’t budge. no, i was strong willed. well, maybe just stupid. either way… i would continue to suck my thumb and get buckteeth.
a habit is an act acquired by experience and performed regularly and automatically. a habit is influenced not only by elements that bring the behavior to the surface but also by rewards or punishments that follow the behavior. self-destructive habits can be eliminated by a number of means such as behavior modification and counter-conditioning techniques. These involve increasing one’s awareness of a habit, interrupting it’s performance so that it no longer seems such a natural thing to, and reinforcing another act as the competitor. habits involve no conscious choice among alternatives. i heard once that if you do something for twenty-one days it is likely to become a habit. don’t believe me? try it. do something for twenty-one days and if you forget do it when you think about it to reinforce it into your head. it will work. eventually it will become second nature and you will just do it until you do the reverse and make yourself stop. for some bad habit, there was never any intentional formation. for example, i have never heard of an alcoholic who started drinking one day by saying “okay just twenty-one days and i’ll drink this stuff like water.” most nail biters probably don’t say “man i love the taste of my nails and the feeling of tearing them down so far my fingers bleed and burn in pain. i should do this more often.” no, it’s just something we do. good habits seem to be more difficult to manage. for example, flossing…the almighty chore. i can’t start. i just can’t. i have decided it’s easier to quit smoking then to start flossing. i just can’t get it going. the key is because i don’t want to and i think about that. why don’t i think i don’t want to do things when it’s bad like cussing, biting my nails, anything…?
i’ll just get to the point now. look at what i said. make any sense? i’m not saying you need to analize what a bad person you are because of your bad habits. become aware of them, yes. try to eliminate them, yes. but we’re not perfect and no one should expect that of us. even more importantly we need to start good habits. reading our bible for example. not that it should be something we just do for the heck of it but we should still do it regularly….daily…multiple times daily. not even reading a bible but doing some form of devotions whatever that my be. praying is another one. don’t let your prayers be regulated to a certain time of day or a certain pattern you always pray in saying the same thing every time. give it meaning. make it something special. give that as much thought as you’d give what you’re going to wear in a certain day. give God as much time as you give your make-up in the morning. do you realize how much time we waste? why? for what? to look good? to feel a shallow, false sense of self-worth or so that we can fit in with the “majority?” why do that? Jesus didn’t and i don’t think He regrets it. we try to hard for the pointless, needless things in life. we strive so hard for personal meaning and worldly acceptance when we can’t even accept ourselves and when we can’t even focus on what it is that we need to accept…God. everything about Him. try it. twenty-one days. i triple-dog-dare you.
believe. live.
- david
1 comment:
Hey. Cool blog. Especially the counter :) See you bro.
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