21 Days

21 days
I recently learned that any habit can be learned or refuted in 21 days. Setting its course in your brain, this new habit becomes a natural part of your routine. Or on the other hand, as it is commonly taught in addiction support groups: remaining free from a substance for 21 days is a beginning step to releasing yourself from addiction. In both scenarios, there is a dependence needed on the power of Christ, to work in us and to will us according to his good purpose.

If you could have any new habit, what would it be?
This question sailed my thoughts for a few weeks. First anchoring on: to do yoga each morning, to write prose everyday, to memorize scripture, to pray diligently for others, even to write down the gifts the Lord has given each day.
The deeper pieces of my heart had something else to share: to finally commit my thoughts to God, to pursue Him wildly, to be unscattered in my diligence to read the Word, to forgive them finally, to remain faithful. Faithful.
There is that word again.
Faithful.
What a great and terrifying word. Great in its conquering of me, the Lord took me into the wilderness and spoke tenderly to me. He remained faithful, even when I didn’t. I swooned at his faithfulness, when brokenness returned. I came to be his, His greatness consumed me. And terrified me: for I am unfaithful. And pursuing to be like Christ is the hardest task donning my soul. I pray I remember I cannot die to flesh and walk in the Spirit by my own will, but out of the power of Christ in me.

But, what are the habits I wish to break?
21 days of abstaining from: grumbling and not giving thanks, Pride of Time, Pride of Relationships, staying away from dairy (I had to throw in a strange one right? But diary makes me feel weird inside but it’s really hard to avoid adding a dollop of cream in my coffee some mornings.)

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).

The commitment time comes.
Ah! But to hear the call, speak of it, and refuse the action is to live foolishly.

My new habit to work diligently on for 21 days: to pray earnestly for my family
My habit to renounce: give up grumbling