The word "habit" means, "pattern of behavior or customary practice". In my opinion it is very closely associated to the word "addiction." Habits are something that all of us have. One unknown author wrote, "Habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of." Another writer stated that "The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half."
In reading and studying 2 Peter 1 recently I was reminded to take a look at my habits. The first thing I had to do was to come to realization and admit that I have habits. The second thing I had to admit is that some of my habits are annoying to others. And third I had to confess that some of the habits I have, I have had most of my life! (Habits like pouting when we don't get our way! The difference is that when I was a child, I didn't care who saw me pout and in fact wanted people to notice that I was pouting. Now that I am an adult I try to pout only when no one is looking, and I no longer call it pouting but just call it "being in a bad mood.”)
Bad habits like "saying goodbye on the phone to someone first" when they are the one that called. Or bad habits like "not looking up when I am walking" and almost having three head-on “walking collisions” recently. Bad habits like “checking facebook” way too often are one of those habits that I have added to my collection of habits in the second-half of my life. "I am sure of this one thing" (as the Apostle Paul would say) that these are not the only bad habits I have but I didn't want to hang out too much of my laundry in this blog. However, all of these are things I need to work on.
Not all of my habits are bad. Simple habits like saying "yes sir" and "no sir". Habits like saying "thank you" every time the waiter or waitress refills my glass of tea at the local restaurant (which may be quite often). Habits like "holding the door open for the person that may be following me into a building, even if they are several steps away." Some habits are as simple as getting out of bed in the morning time. These habits I hope that I will always have. Then there are more serious habits I have, and continue to work on like reading my bible daily and spending time in prayer and meditation on a daily basis.
Then there are things (or habits) that I need to add:
"Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness; add knowledge; and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 NCV
What habits do you need to get rid of and which habits do you need to keep? Is there change that needs to happen in your life? Howard Hendricks, in his book Teaching to Change Lives challenges his readers to "write down somewhere...your answer to this question: How have you changed...be very specific. You say you're growing. Okay...how?"
What about you? How you change lately? Are there old habits that need to be broken and new habits that need to be added?
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