Changing habits

I was reflecting a little today on habits; specifically, bad habits; particularly, my bad habits, and it occurred to me that habits are precisely what Yvonne and I set out to help people build when we began The Little Way. We looked at it as developing routines or offerings that would help us accomplish the tasks of a wife and mother on a journey to sanctity. I think we had a good concept, but looking back, I have to wonder if we didn’t miss a foundational piece. In order to build good habits, the chances are very good that we need to change bad habits. It’s all well and good to say I’m going to do these five tasks every morning, but if I get sidetracked with five other things that I usually do every morning then I have made no progress.

I struggled with this very issue in my over 10 year quest to get healthy and lose weight. I knew how to eat right and I could do that sometimes, but other times, I would just get distracted with unhealthy choices that were in front of me or the convenience of fast food. I knew I needed to develop good habits, but I kept trying to do so as if the bad habits were the foundation and the good habits were something to be added on top of the foundation. It wasn’t until late last spring that I realized, the first thing I needed to do was get rid of the bad habits. My foundation was shaky at best and I really needed to go back and lay a solid foundation so I could begin building upward with good habits.

For me, with my diet, it took some pretty extreme measures to get a better foundation and to make some progress and I won’t get into those here because I’ve written about them ad nausea on my other blog; however, there are some principles that are worth mentioning. First, it took identifying a problem. Second, it took taking responsibility for my problem. Third, it meant I needed to stop making excuses. Fourth, I needed to confess it as the sin that it was. Fifth, I needed to accept God’s love and forgiveness. Some place in all of those steps, I needed to formulate a plan to break the old habits and replace them with new habits. Finally, I need to realize that because this was a sin that I struggled with most of my life, I need to be vigilant against it for the rest of my life. Perhaps it’s like a Twelve Step program, but I basically saw six or seven steps.

Coming back to my reflection today, my bad habits… what are the other bad habits in my life? I’m not going to do this as a personal assessment of all the things I do wrong. I’m sure I have family and friends that would be happy to tell me all of those things. But, as lent draws near, perhaps it is a good time to look at the bad habits in our lives that keep us from making good habits.

A friend of mine challenged me to read a particular reflection book during lent and I’m going to take that challenge, but in order for me to make a serious commitment to do so, I need to give up doing some other things that suck up my time and keep me from doing those things that I know will draw me closer to God.

What are your bad habits? What do you need to do to change them? Pick one or two for lent and really focus on replacing them with good habits. Remember, nothing will change until you do.

Sisters in the Trinity,
Marion