A serious golfer, when his game starts going out of control, immediately reflects on the basics of the game and then focuses on himself and disciplines his mind, body and will in order to correct any bad habits that may be causing the downfall of his game. He may even ask help from a friend and make himself accountable to this person help him carry out a set plan for improving.
We live in hectic times, and Christians are not immune. When we realize our life is starting to get out of control, we should do no less than a serious golfer. We also should immediately go back to the basics of Christian living. Then we must take charge of our thinking, and exercise our will to change or break any bad habits, form good habits and limit our wants.
When a nun complained to Mother Teresa about not having enough time to care for all her patients, Mother Teresa responded by saying that means you must spend more time praying....
Praying is fundamental for every Christian. Prayer helps us to see clearly who we are and our purpose in life. It is good to remind ourselves often that we are children of God, and we totally depend on His faithful love and can do nothing without His grace. Focusing on Christ also reminds us that our purpose in life is to love and serve others. Prayer also helps us decide what is important in our life and what we can eliminate. Through prayer we invite God to actively participate in all our daily activities.
To bring about a real change in our life style we must change. We need to take charge and diligently use our thinking and exercise responsible use of our free will to change bad habits that waste valuable time. The following example should make us realize the need for a close scrutiny of possible time wasting habits especially if we are constantly longing for more time to pray and do other activities..
What happens if 5 minutes is wasted in each period of class in school? It doesn’t sound like a big deal.
In 1 school day 30 minutes are lost.
In 1 school week 2.5 hours are lost.
In 2 school weeks 5 hours or 1 school day is lost.
In school year 20 school days or 1 school month is lost.
In 10 school years 1 school year is lost. Now two and three minutes are a big deal.
Let’s look at some areas that might be worthy of critical examination for wasted time that could be freed up.
THOUGHTS: resentment, bitterness, jealousy, revenge, self-pity, greed, superiority, lust, worry, wishing, etc.
WORDS: gossip, argument, blame, bragging, complaint, condemnation, etc.
DEEDS: abusive eating, abusive drinking, abusive sexual behavior, some types of recreation, procrastination, etc.
Some other areas we may want to change some habits are: TV watching, radio listening, computer games, chat lines, phoning, etc..
When we honestly examine these areas, especially thought, we will be surprised how much time we can free up for productive thinking and other activities.
Now, if we sincerely want to change any of these habits we should treat ourselves like an alcoholic.
Admit to our habit.
Implore the help of God.
Make a firm commitment to ourselves and God to change.
Make ourselves accountable to God and one other person.
If you fail, start over.
Changing our life style requires commitment and that we make a start. If we don’t know where to start, just pick one thing, let’s say thoughts of self-pity or gossiping, and start using the steps of recovery. It is important that we get started so we can have more time to better live our Christian life.
John Miller is a WISDOM facilitator, father of seven home school grads, and grandfather of many. He hails from Paradise Hill, Saskatchewan. You can reach him at john@wisdomhomeschooling.com