Search Google . . . look up “creating a habit” . . . because that is what I did! I found 48,100,000 results. If you have all of the time in the world and are up for a challenge, you may want to peruse through all of 48 million. I settled on one that intrigued me: http://charlesduhigg.com/want-to-make-a-habit/. I don’t know Charles Duhigg and not read his book, but my thinking is, if I’m going to start putting something in to practice to make it a habit why not start with something fairly easy. A flow chart is easy to read and comprehend and even check mark!
This brings me to the season of Lent. It’s the year 2016 and Lent will start on Wednesday, February 9 (Ash Wednesday) and go through March 27 (Easter Sunday). That is relative to which calendar you follow, but for my brains, I’m going with this calendar.
Lent’s origin goes back to early centuries of Christianity. The early church set aside a time for Easter Day. This special day was in addition to celebrating the resurrection of Christ every week. It was the Sunday of Sundays so to speak!
The focus of Lent for the most part is repentance and self-denial. It means that for this period of time, usually around one and one-half months, our focus is more on Christ and turning away from the sin and self-centeredness that has a tendency to direct our lives.
Over the past several years in my youth ministry, I have led our teens to think about these things . . . to give up something by way of self-denial, but at the same time, add more time to something such as prayer, fasting, devotionals.
This year, it’s a specific Bible reading plan. You’re welcome to join us! I’ve attached it so you can read along with us.
Now back to the topic of habits, if you do something long enough, it becomes habit. So, hopefully over the next 40 plus days, you will form a new habit of connecting to God through His word (if you don’t already).
Additionally, I plan to blog about each reading. So according to Mr. Duhigg’s chart, there are several steps that I will have to do to make sure that this happens. It will be a sort of renewal for me that hopefully will lead to some new habits.
Join us!
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