A Creature of Habit

I have heard time and time again, that talking to God, spending time with God, shouldn’t be a HABIT.  And that if we treated our spouse and loved ones as “habits” and something on our TO DO list they would feel like a burden, and it would negatively impact our relationships with them.

Frankly, I disagree.

Let me talk to you about the flip side to that coin.

I am a creature of habit.  I like routines.  They make me feel comfortable and “safe.”  They are what feels like the norm for me.  Now, before you fuss at me and tell me I’m treating God like an old worn-out house shoe, let me explain.

Sure, my habits are generally things I do without much thought.  They are automatic.  “Auto-pilot” – if you will.  But hear me out.  My habits were developed out of priority and necessity.  They are stemmed from things I love, or enjoy, or things that are important to me.

When my daughter was small, I had a habit of getting up and getting her started getting ready for school before I did anything else.  Why?  Because I love my daughter, and her education was important to me.

My husband has a habit of getting up and making coffee.  For him, it is enjoyable, and it brings him comfort.  Even when the world is spinning out of control around him, the morning coffee habit is what soothes him and gives him some semblance of “normalcy.”

I brush my teeth every night before I go to bed.  I don’t do this because it’s something I enjoy, but rather because my teeth are important to my physical health and I want to take proper care of them.

As a married couple, my husband and I have a habit of going somewhere every year on our wedding anniversary.  We don’t debate whether or not we will go. We don’t talk about if it’s convenient to take time off from work or home.  Instead, the question is “Where are we going this year?”  Sometimes it feels like a lot of trouble and expense, to be honest.  We must decide where we are going and who is going to critter-sit for us (we have several animals).  We have to make sure we have the money set aside for accommodations and such.  But we do it because it’s IMPORTANT to us.  We decided when we got married that getting away alone together was an investment in our marriage.  We had folks that tried to make us feel guilty and selfish for going away alone and not taking kids with us (and y’all, especially when they are little, the struggle is real!) But we had already decided our marriage was important and we were going to make it happen.

My husband receives a phone call daily, at the same time, like clockwork.  It comes from his daughter who lives 600 miles away.  She sweetly sets an alarm on her phone to remind her to call her Daddy while he is decompressing on the drive home from work.  Is he upset because it has become a habit?  Is he upset that she has set an alarm to remind her?  Does he feel like talking to him is an item checked off on her TO DO list?  Absolutely not!  He is tickled that she thinks enough of talking to him that she set a reminder to help ensure that it happens.  He feels special and honored because she took the effort to make sure she set the alarm for a time that is convenient for him.  He LOVES that he gets to talk to her every day.

Do y’all see where I am going with this?

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell

My point is this: If I have a habit of spending time with the Lord in the morning when I get up, or if I set an alarm so I will have the habit of a specific prayer time, or if I drag myself into my “prayer chair” at the end of the night, even though I am exhausted and I just want to go to bed, it is NOT a sign of dull joy-less responsibility and drudgery.  To the contrary, it means that I am making time for things that I love, things that have priority in my life and are important to me.

So don’t feel guilty if you have to put PRAYER on your daily TO DO list in order to make it happen.  Don’t feel like you are cheapening your time with the Lord if you have to set an alarm on your phone.  Don’t be ashamed if you have to leave yourself post-it notes on the bathroom mirror to remember to thank the Lord for waking you up and to start your day with prayer.  That’s just the enemy whispering in your ear.

The truth is that you have intentionally taken steps to ensure that something important happens.  And that is a great way to honor God with your time and your energy and your life.