I love you and nobody else, Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch……
Just kidding. I want to talk about habits today. Do you know that addictions are habits formed? The other day I realized that when I linked Facebook to my Blackberry that my phone was continually buzzing with a Facebook message and just like Pavlov’s dog, I would reach for my phone to see what new witty thing someone had to say. I would then answer the message and go back to my work but all of those stop and starts throughout my day were cutting into my time at work. Even though I make my own hours doesn’t mean my time isn’t wasted by all of these starts and stops.
So I determined to only check my Blackberry every hour and a half to start. I would answer my text messages, my facebook messages and then head back to work. Those few days were torture and it didn’t work at all. I rationalized well, it could be a text message and if it was, then it might be the office or the store, whichever place I wasn’t at, and they might need me. This message might not wait an hour till the next check. Then I switched the ringtones, one for text messages and one for Facebook. Still didn’t work because I wanted to see what everyone was talking about.
I have developed an addiction that was formed by a bad habit. I’m working on it now. I could have easily made excuses and said I couldn’t help myself, addictive personalities run in my family, my parents are smokers. For that matter if you look at my family tree, I have drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics in my lineage so addictions are in my DNA.
Only they’re not. That’s a great excuse but it still comes down to choices I make and places I put myself. It really has nothing to do with what my parents do or don’t do, it’s simply what I decide to do. Do patterns follow families? Sure they do, but it’s more about a thought process than it is a built in mechanism. If a certain behavior is acceptable in your family your mind becomes open to it. If you do not build an aversion to it, you may determine to repeat it.
My husband has a saying, Change Your Mind, Change Your World. That’s really it in a nutshell. Those habits that you are trying to break are done by changing thought pattern. So what are you waiting for? Make some small steps away from those thought processes that take you down the wrong path. Stop making excuses because ultimately you are the only one who can help yourself. Determine that those bad habits end today!
Pastor Susan 
I can totally relate I linked Facebook to my e-mail at home which is also linked to my phone, bad idea, I am constantly checking my phone at work to see what comments people made and etc..etc..which turned into me constantly on line when I should be working. I have now put my phone in my purse and keep my purse in my office and only allow myself on Facebook during my lunch hour or when I am at home on my own time. I still have a hard time I want to log on Facebook now just because we are talking about it, crazy huh? The urge is strong but my desire to be a better person is stonger–whew the battles of the flesh and mind (haha). Good blog!
Yeah, I see your point! I take off for work and don’t check my email unless I know I’m supposed to get a message from someone specific that day that will affect my scheduling.
How we think is far more important than what we think about. For instance, how I think about food will affect what I eat and how much. If I look at it as the thing which connects me to contentment, my entire day will center around it.
Yet changing our attitudes by ourselves is impossible. Jesus said, “You can do nothing by yourselves” and then Paul told us “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”
Good food for thought, thanks.