Day Five- Letting Go of Unhealthy Habits

“The greatest wealth is health.”  ~Virgil

It is so easy to take good health for granted. Too many people wait until they are sick to choose to live a healthy lifestyle. Like so many other Godly principles, good health is all about sowing and reaping. Developing and maintaining healthy habits (sowing) will bring about the benefits of good health (reaping). As the old adage says, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Developing healthy habits does not need to be a complicated process. However, it does require a great deal of self-awareness. Before you embark on any radical program, just pay attention to your daily routine for a few days. Be honest with yourself about what and how much you are eating and drinking. How much are you moving throughout the day? How much sleep are you getting each night? In the midst of our fast-paced lives we don’t always pay attention to this throughout the day. Once you have a pretty good picture of your routine, then you can begin to make different choices as needed.

Healthy habits to incorporate into your life include: drinking lots of pure, clean water, eating quality food, exercising, and getting enough sleep. So much has been written on each of these that I will not go into detail here. My guess is that most of us know what we should be doing, we just aren’t making good choices in a consistent manner. So, dig deep and find some motivation! Your health is too important to keep procrastinating.

This whole process requires patience and perseverance. Good habits are developed over time, not overnight. Even little changes can make a big difference and get you moving in the right direction. Start making healthier choices today!

“You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”  1 Corinthians 6:20

Day Nine- Develop Good Habits

“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character...” ~ Stephen R. Covey

 “A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.”  ~Richard Whately

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

If the above quotes are any indication, our daily habits are extremely important.  As parents, we need to be diligent about helping our children develop good habits.  Again, this is one of those things that must be done with intention.  Remember, we are always teaching.  Raising great kids takes a lot of time and effort!

Work hard, finish what you start, clean up after yourself, brush your teeth every day, make healthy food choices… these are some of the more obvious good habits we try to develop in our kids. The following are some more healthy habits that we have tried to teach in our family.

Even before our first child was born, my husband and I had determined that we would be a family of prayer.  Maybe you haven’t ever thought of prayer as a habit, but we wanted to develop that daily practice in our home.  Beginning with that very first night in the hospital following our first child’s birth, we have gathered together as family before bedtime to pray.  Whenever our girls have a worry or concern, we pray.  Whenever someone is sick and needs healing, we pray.  Has it always been easy or convenient? Honestly, no.  But all of these years later, the good habit of daily prayer has been established.

As parents, David and I also determined that we wanted our children to learn to always do their best.  Over the years, “Do your best” has been our expectation and mantra.  Now we hear these words come out of their mouths and we have watched them implement this habit of doing their best in their daily lives.

One last example:  We really wanted our children to become good readers and enjoy reading every day.  If you can read, you can learn anything!  We began reading to them while they were babies.  We tucked them into bed as preschoolers with stacks of books to look at and “read” before they went to sleep.  As emerging readers, our girls read out loud to us each night.  Soon we were reading the same book series together and sharing recommendations within our own little book club.  Now one of our favorite things to do is visit the library or local bookstore together. 

Good habits take time to develop, but it is time well-spent.   Take some time today to think about the habits you want to grow in your kids and then make a plan.  Perhaps you will even develop some new good habits for yourself.