Habits: Hard to Break, Hard to Make

This post is by Patty Lewis.

Songs, books and poems have been written echoing the sentiment of how hard habits are to break.  Habits are also hard to make. 

As I’m writing this, I’m considering some content our family has been consuming for quite some time and how it may not be healthy in the amounts we are taking it in.  I’ve been wondering about it for a while.  This week, being the week before Easter, I’m considering significantly lessening how much of it I voluntarily choose to turn on for myself and my family.   What I’m thinking is we have made a habit that is hard to break for so many seemingly valuable reasons.  I am also thinking, it wouldn’t be too hard to just choose, for this week, to try to break the habit by making a new one.  Purposely choosing not to turn it on most of the time.  With a focus this week on doing it less, I might be actually breaking the habit and making a healthier one.

At the time you are reading this, I hope I have actually made progress, post Easter weekend.  I have been pondering this issue for months.  It has been more and more obvious to me that we could probably make healthier choices to watch or listen to things that encourage us toward our hobbies or getting better at skills we need for living life.  If we are going to listen to music, we can listen to upbeat, encouraging music.  I’m hoping that we have by now, as a family, begun to actually break one habit and make a new one by simply starting over the course of one week to make simple small changes. 

Habits are often hard to break.  We get used to them.  The desire for whatever it is we are habitually doing, such as consuming a specific type of media is present and it's comfortable. 

 However, habits are also, often hard to make.  This time, though, as I approach this particular habit, I’m going in with a positive attitude.  I’m choosing to go slow, think my choices through and expect positive outcomes.  I’m hoping in the Lord.  

I’ve got no written outline, no major plan.   I’m starting today, this whole week and looking forward to continuing.  I’m praying for wisdom and guidance.  This is for our family.  It’s going to be good. 

If you have been thinking about something along these lines.  Something that keeps coming to mind, I encourage you to start small and see if you can begin to break a habit you have formed and/or make a new habit that will bring more life to you and your family. 

 May the Lord bless you and keep you! 

Patty Lewis lives on the Space Coast of Florida with her Husband, Son and one cat. She is a homeschool Momma, loves having the goal of encouraging others by listening and speaking words of life. She enjoys reading, gardening, learning, exploring, Disney, coffee (iced lattes really sweet), anything with her family and laughing really loud.

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash