A habit: a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.
After being gone for 8 months you tend to pick up new habits. You also tend to notice people’s habits around you. A month away from the race being over I have begun to wonder if these “habits” that I have picked up will stick with me.
One of my squad mates here walks Cicrin, the place we live, 7 times a day praying for whatever is on her mind. She started this because she was bored one day. Now, it could be late at night and I will see her walking because she had a busy day, but out of habit she continues on. I always wonder if when she goes home if she will walk her neighborhood everyday, or around her house.
Personally, I have gotten in the routine of journaling and doing art which we have come to call “arting” on the race. By journaling every day I have come to get my feelings down on paper and then express myself in my paints. Journaling helps me to speak things out that I sometimes can’t speak aloud, but can write aloud in my journal to God. Whenever I have ever gone on a mission trip I have always journaled daily. After being gone for so long and keeping up in my journal, I wonder if I will now take this home. Someday I let some of my friends read my journal. By letting people read my journal takes a whole lot out of my vulnerable side. I’m getting better at that.
Another habit one of my teammates has is he goes out into the lake daily and talks/ prays to God. I decided to start doing that and it is incredible. You can talk to God forever long in your head, but I realized that when I talk aloud to God it feels so much more real. I experience this sort of joy that I don’t get when I just speak with Him in my head. I feel as if He walks me through so much more when speaking aloud. It is probably one of the most uncomfortable things to do. Talking to what seems like air looks a little bits strange. With this habit in the making, I wonder if I will bring it back to the states.
I so desperately want to take home the habits I have made on the race. Being home is such a different environment from this place.
Something that encourages me is when I think back to people in the bible.
Take Daniel for example: In Daniel 6:10 it says,
“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”
Setting aside 3 times a day to pray became his habit.
Then, I was reading online about habits and came across one on God:
“Now, God in the Bible, and especially Jesus in the Gospels, has this one really nettlesome habit: God often gives an answer that is not an answer to the question asked. God does not say, as the therapeutic moral deism of American religion might expect, “Oh Moses, you ARE special. You can do it! You are your own unique snowflake. You see shepherd; I see savior!” God doesn’t assure Moses anything about himself. God’s say, “The most important thing about you is that I will go with you. You will, if you look for them, see signs of my presence. Who you are is someone whom God will never leave nor forsake.”
Daniel started praying 3 times a day to start his habit, it didn’t come easy to him.
My favorite though is how even God has habits. With that, I know I can carry on in my newfound ones.
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” ~ Jim Rohn
Update on my life coming soon!!!
