Tag: habits

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on a Restart

I hate it when I have to start over.

Whether it’s a writing project, an exercise routine, or healthy eating, it stinks when I get off track and let all of my hard work go to waste.

I’ve especially been noticing it in my eating habits lately. For a long time, I was making healthier choices and cutting out between-meal snacks.

For the last week or so, I’ve found myself in the kitchen way too often, consuming handfuls of M&Ms and marshmallows at all hours of the day. Why?

Is it stress? Is it boredom? It’s certainly not hunger. I guess I have some work to do as I look at what’s sending me to the kitchen.

But that’s not what I want to focus on right now. What I want us to consider is the fact that we can always start over, even if we do it fifty times in one day.

I don’t have to throw in the towel and pig out this weekend, telling myself I’ll start again on Monday. I can declare a restart right now and get back to making smart decisions about what I’m eating and when I eat.

If you’ve gotten into the habit of hitting the snooze five times in the mornings, you can declare a restart and get up the first time your alarm rings tomorrow morning.

If you’ve quit going to the gym or taking your daily run, you can declare a restart and do some kind of exercise tomorrow.

If you’ve fallen into the miserable habit of complaining about everything that happens to you during a typical day, you can declare a restart and start noticing things to be thankful for instead.

We don’t have to wait until next week, next month, or next year. Let’s declare a restart and get back on track!

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1–2 NIV)

Have you gotten off track in any area of your life? How can focusing on God help you to declare a restart and get back to better ways of doing things?

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Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Not Going Back

I slept in today.

It worried me because there was a time more than a year ago when I couldn’t seem to get up on time.

Every morning I would hit the snooze over and over or turn off the alarm and not get up. I moved my alarm clock across the room, but I would still turn it off and crawl back in bed.

That’s what happened today. I shut off the alarm and then I made the choice to get back under the covers and sleep for another hour and a half.

It felt unavoidable, but I was conscious of the moment when it could have gone either way.

I was standing up after shutting off the alarm. The next action was normally to turn on the light, head for the bathroom, then get dressed and go read my Bible for a while before exercising.

This time, my hand didn’t immediately reach out to turn on the light. I debated with myself for about five seconds and then I turned and headed for the bed.

When I woke up later, I felt so defeated. I didn’t like remembering how hard it had been to get out of bed so long ago. I feared I was going back to my old bad habit.

How silly! This was one day of sleeping in after months and months of getting up on time. I’m not going back. I know how good it feels to do the right thing.

There are areas of my life where I choose to do what God wants me to do quite easily. I’m free from those habits and sins and I’ll never go back.

There are other areas where I can’t quite seem to get free.

Overeating.

Procrastination.

Negative thinking.

As I think about those areas, I realize that I can usually notice the moment where it can go either way.

When I open the cupboard door, but before I reach for the chips.

When I think about doing some writing, but before I click to open Facebook instead.

When I notice a self-condemning thought, but before I agree with it and add a few more criticisms.

With Holy Spirit help and lots of practice, I can choose to do the right thing in each of those areas. I can get free and move ahead to better ways of eating, acting, and thinking.

Maybe you have some areas of your life that feel overwhelming and inescapable. Can you figure out the moment where things could go either way? Let’s practice noticing that moment and making the best choice right then. At first, we may only make a good choice two times out of ten. If we keep praying and practicing, eventually it will become six times out of ten…eight times out of ten…and then ten out of ten.

Once we’re free of those old habits and sins, let’s determine that we’re not going back!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

Are you stuck in any bad patterns of acting or thinking? How can focusing on God help you to get free from those things and move forward in freedom?

As I was writing this week’s post, I couldn’t stop thinking about this old Keith Green song, so I thought I’d share it here. After being freed from slavery, the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt. Let’s not be like them!