Awake!

It is my belief that a person is largely the sum of his or her habits.  In Charles Duhig's book The Power of Habit, we learn that approximately 40% of what we do is a product of habit rather than conscious choice. A habit can either be nourishing and sustaining, like physical exercise or cultivating quiet time with God, or it can be destructive. I am relatively aware and diligent about my physical habits, but have largely overlooked the impact of my mental ones.

I am a firm believer in the adage that pain is 3/4 the anticipation of pain.  Our fear creates 3/4 of our experience of pain! I am finding that this principle holds for not only pain, but stress as well.  I create 3/4 of the stress in my life with my own anxiety about hypothetical stress. What a detrimental habit! God says, "Do not worry about tomorrow's troubles, for tomorrow will have enough trouble of it's own." Do not heap imaginary burdens on top of the real ones! When we do this, we rob ourselves of much of God's peace and joy.  We effectively choose to distrust His ability to care for us, and deny His nature as a good God.

In her blog, A Holy Experience, Ann Voskamp explains that goodness and mercy (Psalm 23) don't just follow us all the days of our lives, they "Radah", hunt us down! I choose the familiarly of my anxiety because his blessing and plan for my life are unknown and outside of my control. 

When Morgan was in preschool, I enrolled her in dance, because I knew she would love it, and thought it would benefit her.  For weeks, every time I dropped her off she clung to my leg and wailed, until one day, I pried her off me, deposited her in the studio and left (ok, so I was outside in my car, but she didn't know that).  And wouldn't you know, she danced that day, and she loved it.

This is what we do to God all the time; throw his gifts in his face because" I HATE dance!!"( or whatever), when really, what I hate is having to get over myself, leave my comfort zone, and trust God.

For the longest time I have failed to realize that my mental habits were attitudes that I allow to persist.  I have harbored excuses about why these attributes are a part of who I am, but the truth is, I have allowed unhealthy mental habits to take root, and with God's help and with conscious choice, I can weed them out.

Last March, when I was reading The Power of Habit, I committed to make my bed every day of that month.  And guess what, I make my bed every day now.  In Ann Voskamp's amazing book 1000 gifts, she discovers that we can develop the discipline of gratitude and joy, by focusing our attention on the hand of God in our lives, by recognizing and being thankful for his abundant gifts.  It is time that I take God at his word.  He promises that he will meet my needs, hear my prayers, hunt me down with his blessings.  It is time I choose to let him be my daily bread, and live a life of faith, not a life of anxiety and fear. If we become complacent about our mental habits, we can unwittingly stumble into the path of the enemy. God's grace reveals itself to us daily, if only we have the perspective to see it.  Let us develop habits that glorify God, and wake to joy!