Forming Habits in Ourselves

Habits – we all have them.  Probably 99% of our day is based upon the habits we have established whether they be good or bad.

My post on habits is going to be not so much on establishing habits in my children but in myself.  I have habits I want my children to have but I also must show a willingness to establish good patterns in my own life.

Now I’m not advocating that we leave our children to themselves while we create new habits in our own life.  I just know  that so many times it’s easier to focus on someone else and how they need to change than to face issues in our own life.

Change is hard.  It’s easy to write down all the things we want to change in our lives but actually doing it and not giving up is a whole different matter.  I believe that the habit we want to secure in ourselves must be something we yearn for deeply.  We have to be convinced it’s something we really need to have in our life – we need to see the value of it.

Charlotte Mason writes about working on one habit at a time  I’ve also heard that it takes about 3 weeks to form a habit – depending on how often it’s repeated.

Be realistic about what you want to change.  For example, I know there are a lot of ladies that want to get up early to have devotions but they’re just unable to drag themselves out of bed because they have an infant they’re up with during the night.  In this case, it’s not very realistic to think you can get up at 5 a.m.  So, be realistic.

Here are my own list of steps to establishing a habit.

• What area do you desperately want to change?
• Be realistic.
• Begin – don’t put it off till tomorrow saying everything will be in more order then – Start today!
• Press on!  It won’t be easy to change since you have to unlearn the old habit.
• Get back up and begin again!  If you mess up don’t beat yourself up over it – begin again.
• Ask God to help you.

As the song goes, "Little by little, I’m changing, I’m growing."

Copyright 2008 Treasuring the Moments