Creating Habits

You know...One of the things that has been absolutely key in my successful weight loss so far has been the ability to add some new habits to my life. I have made it a habit to exercise almost every day. When I get up on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, there's no question I will be exercising. These days that most likely means going for a run. At first, it was a difficult chore to do the exercising, but after a pretty short while, not only did it become second-nature, but I began to LOVE IT. I absolutely LOVE to exercise now.

When I'm grabbing something to eat, it's absolutely a habit for me to immediately figure out how many points it is and how many I have left for the day. It's a habit for me to go to my WW meeting every Thursday evening. All new habits, formed because they are helping to accomplish something that I really want in my life. Things I don't have to even think about anymore, really.

I just read today's selection from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers, which seems incredibly pertinent. (here's a link: http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php?month=06&day=15&year=06 )

Here's the thing, though. That has really confronted me with the fact that I have still not been able to "form" new habits in my Christian walk as well as I would like to. I have yet to make real prayer and scripture reading a daily habit, even though I know how absolutely critical it is to my success as a Christian man in this world. The reading above, along with my physical success in weight-loss has made it absolutely clear that it IS possible for me to make these things a habit, and yes, even begin to LOVE doing it. But I've got to be willing to put in the effort it will take to get through the "adding" and "forming" part, in order to get to the "habit" and "love it" parts. That much is up to me, but the cool thing is, I know that if I'll do my part, He will meet me halfway with arms open wide and grace flowing!

Now, similar to the fact that I didn't start my exercise program with a 5 mile run every morning, and I didn't change my whole diet all in one day, I'm not going to start this "forming" of new habits by promising to do 3 hours of Bible study and prayer every day. I'm going to take this a little bit at a time, doing some small study work and prayer each day and then add to it little by little.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you lose 100+ pounds? One pound at a time. How do you read the whole Bible? One chapter at a time. I'm making a commitment to do just that, starting today!