' message, Sunday November 23, 2008

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HABIT-FORMING

Sunday, 23 November 2008

At a very early age, we all form habits. Some of them are good habits and well...some of them are not so good. Those would be the bad habits.

And from where do we pick up our habits? Oh, we pick them up from our parents, our siblings, from television, from other kids at school and some of them we just pick up on our own. Throughout our lives, we form both kinds of habits, good ones and bad ones.Good habits are things like saying hello to everyone as you pass them on the street. A good habit would be helping a neighbor or reaching out to help someone else in need, like at your church. Good habits include developing good hygiene daily rituals like taking a shower, fluffing your hair and brushing your teeth everyday. (And don't forget to floss!)Other good habits include making your bed every morning, hanging up your clothes after you get home for the day and making sure your laundry always smells April fresh. Oh, there are millions of good habits you can form. But then...there are those bad habits! O-o-o-h-h-h! Aren't you scared of them? Bad habits would include being constantly late for work and for everything else. A bad habit is making plans with someone and then not even showing up. (Not to mention, it's rude, too!) It's a bad habit not staying in touch with the ones you love...don't do that!

If you're a smoker or were ever a smoker, at what age did you pick up that bad and unhealthy habit? When did you pick up the habit of drinking too much alcohol?"Do you like Pina Calada's, getting caught in the rain?"And what about drugs? Now that's a really dreadful habit for you to fall into! And do you over-love food? I'm sure you know, that just like getting addicted to some drugs. Being addicted to food is just about as bad, isn't it? Now, the sad part about some of the bad habits I just mentioned is that many of them can shorten your life. For instance, If you're a smoker, there will come a time when you may have to face some very bad news about your health. And the same is true if you are a heavy drinker or are addicted to drugs. The bad habit I had that conquered my own life for so long is my loving food too much. And that excessive love of food did cost me a little bit of my health. And because I formed the bad habit of not exercising regularly, it cost me a little bit more of my good health, too.

What you've gotta do is turn those doggoned bad habits into doggoned good ones! No, it won't happen overnight. In fact, that's not how we form habits, good or bad, anyway. But if you work at it every single day, you will stop abusing that miraculous gift God gave you...your body!On this beautiful Sunday, I want you to really think about this message today. And by the way, I want to say thank you for forming the good habit of coming here to read my daily messages, seven days a week!Love,