Habits and Small Beginnings

How is 2024 shaping up so far?

Here in western New York, we have been blessed with some snow and cold but mild temperatures. The kids have made snowmen and got a little sledding in, and I’m making progress in restoring order. Big Bro is settled into a vocational school, and his routine has brought some order to the rest of us. We have had a decent start.

Last year, God gave me the word hope as a companion through one of our hardest years, maybe the final challenging year from that particular run of trials.  It seems it was a word meant to encourage me through the year. This year, it’s a little different.

It began with an invitation. 

As I began looking for a word, I kept noticing the word habits.  At first, I thought it was a straightforward word and that it had to do with healing and rebuilding after years of trials and the resulting chaos.  While that seems to be true, I am discovering God has much to teach me and that it has a spiritual component to it as well.  I am not lost to the fact that the direction He has invited me to pursue may be a rescue, and Lord-willing will bring closure to a very long quest.

For nineteen years, I have been a student of homemaking and time management. I’ve read book after book, article after article. I’ve listened to others to whom these skills come easily. I am not naturally neat and tidy. My creative brain, which I’ve recently learned tips over into ADHD territory, makes it hard to stick to routines and schedules. Oh, I can be productive and get lots of things accomplished. I’m just not neat and tidy while doing so. I tend toward clutter, which is the opposite of hubby. And kids don’t thrive in that either.

My striving and attempts to force tidiness and order have only taken me so far, but not far enough for success. Having a kiddo with both types of ADHD in the house doesn’t help.  It feels like constantly being on the defense and responding to life despite my best efforts. The year that encouraged me to keep hope ended with being invited to embrace habits and growth. God has a way different than I have been taking. It appears He is leading me on a journey that may bring closure to years of striving.

It continues with a perspective shift.

As I’ve often found, there’s a spiritual side to every human concept. For example, gratitude runs parallel to God’s goodness. And God has blessed me with the perspective shift that the spiritual version of habits is called liturgies. That’s a big word that just means rhythms of worship.

Who would have thought that our habits actually expose what we worship?!  And further, we can choose to make our habits align with what we value.

That concept just jumped out at me and smacked me in the face. Perspective changes everything. Just as liturgies form around religious times of worship, our habits as we go about our days and weeks can also serve the purpose of worship. As the Lord draws us closer, we naturally want to focus on and please Him more. What better way than to infuse our day with worship.

If our days are infused with worship, our lights will definitely shine before men and be an unspoken witness for our faith.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16

For me, that perspective shift promises to help provide motivation when my own willpower isn’t strong.  It just might be the thing that will help with consistency. A daily exercise habit that will improve health can be an offering of worship to the Lord, and we can further that by pairing that with a time of prayer. Our cleaning routines or meal preparations can also be worship as we love our families and serve the Lord. We can pair those with worship music and made into a reminder to praise the Lord as we listen. For those of us writers, we can pair our writing habit with Bible study and done with a posture of worship.

Oh, the possibilities!

I’ll be chewing on this for a while. I’m sure God has more to show me, but it was too good of a nugget to keep to myself! Along with the word habits, He gave me Zechariah 4:10 as my verse:

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…”
Zechariah 4:10

The New Living Translation version says it best, although it’s going to take some study of the whole passage to figure out where that translation comes from. Since that version is a paraphrase, it is meant to help us understand, not be our main version, but when I look at the Hebrew words, it doesn’t make sense.

I’m looking forward to studying the passage this coming year and discovering what God is up to. And I’m even more excited to see how He’ll apply it to my life as the year progresses.

It’s always an adventure with him!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on habits and small beginnings. Let’s carry on the conversation in the comments section below!