Sometimes nature can show us how to deal with problems in our own lives. Recently, I quickly weeded around the flowers in my yard, breaking off the unwanted plants at the ground. My flowers looked better without the unsightly distractions and I was happy.
Then I left for a ten-day vacation. When I returned the weeds were bigger and thicker than the ones I had torn out. I felt overwhelmed with the job ahead of me to weed around the flowers again. This time I took my spade and loosened all the moist dirt and pulled the roots out along with the plant. When I was finished, I watered the area and placed bark chips around the flowers. The weeds will have a harder time establishing themselves now.
The same is true with our bad habits. We may find the strength to stop them for a while but before we know it, they have returned. Maybe we need to look a little deeper at them. Why did we start that particular habit? What causes us to fall back on it? Whether we are talking about eating, smoking, drugs, swearing, gossip, bitterness or just being apathetic, we all have something to work on.
Identify your issue and ask God to show you the root cause of it. If you dig up the root, the problem will be easier to abandon. But just getting rid of it isn’t enough; replace it with something positive. You can throw out the chips and have veggies available for those moments of compulsive eating. When you say a bad word or a bad word about someone, correct it with an encouraging word. Your good habits with be brighter when you replace the bad ones.
What habit is God showing you to get rid of? How are you handling it?