Habits

12-4-2009
Habits

For those of you that missed the devotional from yesterday, we all had a little homework assignment to test the “humans are all habitual” hypothesis. The assignment was geared for those that have a spouse they share a bed with. We were to get on “their” side of the bed to see what they would say about sleeping on “our” side of the bed. Therefore, I got on her side of the bed before she came in the room. When she walked into the room she just looked at me. She knew something was strange when I beat her to bed. I’m usually up working on the computer or reading. She then walked over to “her” side of the bed to put her phone on the charger, and said “are you going to sleep on “MY” side of the bed tonight?” I then said, “Maybe”, and with sort of an annoyed smirk she said, “Okay…whatever.” I couldn’t help myself, so I just started laughing. I then told her what I was doing, and that I feel like the majority of what we do is based on the habits we instill in ourselves, and by making her feel as if I was going to sleep on “her” side of the bed would prove my point. We shared a long laugh about this situation, and she finally admitted that my point was valid. It was strange for both of us to be on the opposite side of the bed, so we immediately switched back to our respective sides.

The exercise was funny, but very truthful. There’s no telling how many habits we need to break, and how many habits we need to instill in our lives. I can’t wait to read all of your responses to this exercise. Humans are habitual, and the silly exercise proves this point. If you missed the devotional for yesterday you may want to go to my blog to catch up before reading the rest of this devotional.

Along with creating habits that will aid our Christian journey, we must make sure we aren’t simply doing “religious acts.” God wants us to be pure with our actions and motives. To read the Bible for the sake of reading the Bible misses the entire point of the exercise. We should read the Bible to grow in our relationship with Christ. While it’s important to form great habits, we need to make sure we never lose sight of why we set out to form certain habits in the first place. If you are in church every Sunday, are you truly there to worship Christ, or are you going because you are supposed to go? Christ calls us to have pure hearts, so let’s create great habits and never lose sight of why we started them in the first place.

Application:
1. Email me your exercise story…I promise to leave out any names.
2. Stay pure in your motives, and make sure you habits are being done for the right reasons.