habits

Have you ever noticed that some habits are so easy to break while others are the hardest thing that you have had to do in a long time?  For me, the worse habit that I had was biting my nails.  I would bite them all day long every day if they were long enough.  I had done it since I was a little kid and that was what happened.  I just continued.  For a lot of people it is smoking and drinking or coffee or shopping and spending money, watching TV non-stop (guilty!).  These are the kind of habits that are hard for us to break.  Another habit that plagues me is the attention that I pay to drama.  I throw myself in the middle of it all the time!  The good habits are the ones that are so easy to break.  Like this blog.  I took a break from it for a week and it was so easy for me to say – nope, not getting back on there.  Just reading the Bible every day is easy to break.  Working out, walking, running, a lot of times, the best things for you and your body are the easiest habits to ignore or to break. 

I really struggled breaking the habit of biting my nails recently.  It is a really gross habit if you think about it b/c your fingers go everywhere and your nails collect a lot of gunk under them unless special attention is spent on that.  So when you are biting your nails, whatever you scraped off or helped jimmy loose with your fingers, is going directly into your mouth.  Think of the shoes you help put on – and what those shoes walk through daily- GROSS!!! 

I have known how disgusting that habit was for years and have never been able to stop.  I am now at week 5 of not biting my nails, it is so weird to have longer nails for once in my life, my texting has definitely suffered since they hit all sorts of keys.  I take special care to ensure they are clean, but they don’t ever go into my mouth anymore.  It took me years to break this habit but only one week to break the habit of getting on my blog and into my Bible. 

Colossians 2:6 and 7 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

How is one to be “rooted” in Christ?  Roots are pretty neat, they dig down into the surface to find water and nutrition.  If you are rooted in Christ, you are looking for your nutrition from him.  Looking for your daily water to feed your whole body.  To make, or break, a habit, you have to be extremely intentional about it.  It just doesn’t start up.  You make the conscious decision that I am either going to do or not to do this thing.  Make a conscious decision to be rooted in Christ!