Breaking Up with Bad Habits
We’ve talked about the importance of habits, so even as we press on into why and how we start new Godly habits, perhaps we should take a moment to look at some of the behaviours that we know aren’t healthy for us.
Breaking a habit can feel overwhelming, but there’s a very simple way to get the ball rolling.
As the creation of a habit is doing something repeatedly until you can complete the task without conscious effort, so the breaking of habits can be started by the bringing to the front of the mind something that you’ve been doing automatically.
Say you’re working late on a project, making the most of the quiet hours whilst everyone else is in bed. You go to reach for another biscuit, maybe because your mouth is bored, maybe because it’s part of your process, but certainly not because you’re actually hungry. You know you’ve had plenty to eat for the day and yet, you stretch out your hand for more. I’ve known whole packs of my favourite biscuits to disappear this way, something I know is definitely not good for me physically, or even mentally or spiritually.
My physical actions have a ripple effect through my whole life. But in the moment, if I say to myself, preferably out loud, ‘I am about to eat another biscuit. I don’t need it, I just want it’, then even as I still take and consume that biscuit, I’ve brought the event to the front of my mind instead of letting it slip past under the radar and I’ve actually given my conscious mind the chance to make a decision about it. Behaviours don’t immediately change, but the act of bringing it to the front of my mind helps me to decide if this is a behaviour I want to allow.
Yes, it’s just a biscuit, and maybe biscuits aren’t your downfall. Whatever your ‘thing’ is though, however small, it’s worth your attention. As I get serious about my bad habits, I can acknowledge that the things that aren’t good for me are sin. (Philippians 3:19) I know that when I let my stomach make my decisions for me, I’ve elevated it above what I know to be good in my life. To drill down on the point, whatever I let rule me- whether through habits or conscious decisions – I let become an idol in my life.
Even as I share these thoughts on habits with you, please know that I’m a work in progress. I’m just a busy mum trying to make better decisions, to live a healthier, more Godly life, because I know that this physical body God created for me is the only one I have. By taking more control of the decisions regarding my body, the better I can steward it. The more energy I’ll have to run around with my kids, the better my mental health will be when my physical body is better nourished and given fresh air and exercise.
We can easily get bogged down in endless self-improvement, feeling like we’re on a hamster wheel of striving, but we shouldn’t swing the other way and dismiss the power that breaking up with bad habits can have, whether it’s sharing a little bit of gossip or ‘just’ another biscuit.
And so tonight, maybe this time, maybe I’ll decide that the person I want to be doesn’t need that biscuit. That it’s not a punishment to deny myself a treat, it’s an investment in my future, a vote in the box of the person I want to become. And I don’t do it alone. Neither do you.
‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.‘
(Hebrews 12:1 NIV)
Action it:
Today, as you think over the verse from Hebrews, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what it is, big or small, that is entangling you. What it is, thought, behaviour or action that He’s calling you to throw off, and ask Him to help you bring it into the light.
