Habits come from practice and perseverance

I went to observe a class at Greenville Literacy Association and one of the ladies there showed me her work. 

When I pointed out a mistake she said, “I always do that. I write how I speak.”  I encouraged her by saying that’s normal and that it takes practice to get better. That the more she does it, the more natural it’ll feel. And that it’ll become second nature when she does it enough. 

On my way home, I realized my relationship with God is similar to that. When I first set a specific time to read my Bible, it’s often awkward, or I forget.  I have to discipline myself to think about and follow through on it. But the longer I do it, the more comfortable it’ll get until it becomes natural. 

I’m not there yet.  It’ll take time, but with practice and perseverance, it’ll get better and easier.  Maybe someday it’ll be so natural I won’t even think about it when I go about my days. 

How 'bout you? How do you form a habit that sticks?  Let’s talk about it and learn from each other.

 God Directs Us

 

 

Life can pull us in all different directions, not just physically, when we need to be in two places at once, but emotionally too. I find the latter is much more difficult. There are many times when our lives are going well. There’s money in the bank, our health is good, and we have friends we can rely on. We enjoy it and, if we remember to, we thank God for them, recognizing He’s provided them for us.

But when something happens that changes our lives, we’re often left wondering why and what to do next. It could be anything—job loss, health issues, death of a loved one, or any host of other circumstances.  What do we do then?

I’ve found we have to hold on to what never changes in this world and that there are three things that meet that criteria: God, God’s Word, and God’s promises.  We’re going to take a look at these over the next several weeks. I’d love to hear your feedback in the process.

First, God is love.  So everything He does is done out of love for us.  Sometimes I find that hard to believe, especially  when life doesn’t go the way it should. When senseless things like someone dying far too young.  Often God doesn’t answer our “why questions.”  Sometimes we have to wait, for a variety of reasons.  I’ve had to wait for an answer to that question for months in the past, regarding my health.  It frustrated me, but I spoke to Him more in that time than usual. Perhaps that was part of the point?   Maybe. 

Now it’s your turn. What have you been through when you questioned God?  How did you make it through?  Share your experience here. Someone will benefit from it.

 

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