Aspen used to just rudely interrupt Brett’s and my conversation with out saying, “Excuse me.”  Finally, we told her that since we wanted her to grow up to be a polite person who other people would want to spend time with she needed to say, “Excuse me,” when she wanted to get our attention.  It was one of those amazing transformations that rarely happens in children or adults, but ever since then she has said, “Excuse me”, when she wants to get our attention.

I would like to be able to change all my bad habits that easily.  But, change takes time and effort.   The effort to change my thought patterns and consequently my actions and having the patience to wait for the time it takes to be successful.

If all I thought about was my bad habit, it would be hard to overcome.  But, when I think about what I want to be instead, I have a new goal, a new direction to head in.  So when my bad habit pops into my head instead of thinking about it, I choose to think about my new goal, my new direction.  It  requires much practice to change my old thought patterns into new ones. But, if I insist on beholding the new thought rather than the old one, eventually the old thought becomes as rare as the new one used to be.

It takes time to change bad habits,  I can’t just spend time for five minutes every morning and a couple of hours once a week practicing.  If I want to truly change my habit I need to practice changing my thought patterns all day long no matter what I am doing.

My personal life will not resemble Christs if I spend five minutes a day with Him and a couple of hours on the weekend.   In order to always be a representative of Christ, I need to spend every moment with Him, living as though it were only He and I in the room.

“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  2 Corinthians 3:18