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Cowboys,
Easy Chairs and Bad Habits
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Someone has said
that bad habits are like easy chairs–easy to get into, but
hard to get out of. Ain’t it so? Life sometimes seems
unfair, doesn’t it? It’s so difficult to form good habits
while the forming of bad ones is done almost without doing
anything. You just sort of let them happen. They usually
demand very little time, and they are acquired in such subtle
ways that they become routine almost without notice.
“For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought
into bondage” (II Peter 2:19). “Know ye not that to whom
ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom
ye obey...?” (Romans 6:16). What does that say to us? Better
watch out what we allow to control us. Bad habits control.
Habits–good or bad–depend on repetition for survival. If
you do something over and over long enough it will become an
almost unnoticeable routine, a habit. Obviously, those things
we enjoy doing are more likely to become habits, so it
behooves to be careful to like the right things. If we don’t
like a thing, we respond by staying away from it.
Breaking habits isn’t easy. That’s why good ones are so
good and bad ones are so bad. I don’t know why, but It seems
that bad habits are harder to break than good ones.
If we’re to cease some bad habit we have to begin by
stunting its regularity.
And if we are to develop a good habit, we have to have such a
conviction as regards its usefulness or necessity that it
results in our repeating the action often enough that it
becomes a beneficial regularity.
The mind is the incubator for the thoughts we choose. We
decide when and what information we will allow into our minds.
Our thoughts are your own–nobody does my thinking for me.
If we allow our minds to constantly dwell on evil, lewd
information–like pornographic material–that type of
recurring thinking will soon become habitual. And the people
who have studied that kind of mental addiction have concluded
that pornography, and things like it, may well be the most
difficult of all such mental habits to break. It’s easy to
start, hard to stop.
We cannot keep bad thoughts from passing through our minds
from time to time, but we don’t have to invite the evil in
and give it a place to stay. We are to “give no place to the
devil” (Ephesians 4:27). If we give him residency in our
minds long enough he will get a foothold. Too many people not
only allow him to come in, but give him a place to sit,
something to drink, and a comfortable conversation to enjoy.
To expel evil thoughts as soon as possible is one of the best
habits a person can develop and maintain. Impurities have no
legitimate place in the Christian’s heart. Constant clean
thinking is a splendid deterrent to evil advances.
One of the best ways to preclude the devil’s invasion into
our thinking is to acquire the habit of regular Bible reading.
Bible reading puts God in our minds, and the habit of rapid
and consecutive contact with God’s word is no doubt the most
effective way to combat evil encroachments. Good information
crowds out evil thinking. “I have I sought thee: O let me
not wander from thy commandments. They word have I hid in mine
heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:10-11).
Another thing–It’s easy to fall into the habit of speaking
what you hear around you every day. The world routinely uses
foul language and ungodly speech. It is becoming commonplace
to hear dirty language in the media, in music and
entertainment, sports events, even on the school ground.
Language which would not have been tolerated just a few years
ago has become routine–habitual–in today’s age. It’s
fashionable, even, to say certain words and phrases of
impiety–especially among the young.
Clean speech is another good habit to acquire. We don’t need
filthy words or inordinate vows with which to express
ourselves and we should speak in such a way that it becomes
obvious that we are not with the “in crowd” when it comes
to dirty talking. We should habitually use words and phrases
that are clean, devoid of putridness or impiety.
It’s hard to break bad habits. But just as the West Texas
cowboy had to “break” the horses to show them who’s
boss, even so we must “break” bad habits by showing them
that we are greater than they are.
Dee Bowman
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