Examine Your Habits {no matter how painful it may be}

Have you paid much attention to the screen display on your phone that reveals the amount of time you spend on your phone? It is broken down between Social, Information&Reading, and Productivity&Finance. I would share my numbers with you, but I’d be super ashamed.

If you scroll down a little farther, there’s a box titled “PICKUPS,” telling how many times these hands touched this phone. Again, I’d share the number but, gah, how embarrassing.

Especially knowing there are things left undone around this house that these hands should have been doing. Especially knowing there are eye to eye, face to face conversations not had with these teenagers in my house. Especially knowing what a colossal waste of time MOST of the minutes on this phone represent.

I am reading I Kings and noticed the comparison made in the last verse of Chapter 6 and the first verse of Chapter 7; these verses are actually meant to be read together with no chapter breaks.

“So he [Solomon] was seven years in building it [house of the Lord]. Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.”

G. Campbell Morgan says about this contrast that it doesn’t mean the Temple was done in a rush, “but it does show the place which his own personal comfort and luxurious tastes had come to occupy in the life of Solomon, that he should build for himself a palace which took nearly twice as long to build as the House of his God. It is often by such simple and unexpected tests that the deepest facts of a human life are revealed.”

It got me thinking—what contrasts can be made in my life and what facts might they reveal about my life?

“So she spent 45 minutes reading her Bible and praying. Now Kristy spent 240 minutes scrolling pretty aimlessly on her phone in that same day.”

I am not one to try and shame anyone about their life choices. I don’t intend to beat you up with my words. I do, however, think examination is a good thing. Examine your habits. Make yourself look at the facts revealed on that little display of time spent on your phone. And then make necessary adjustments. You aren’t stuck in the rhythms and routines in which you currently find yourself. With God’s help, your habits can become better and more life-giving. 

Also? Take a look ahead. Where are your habits taking you? You’re headed somewhere and where you’re headed is shaped an awful lot by your daily focus and habits. For Solomon, it didn’t end well. You can read on in I Kings and see that eventually “The Lord was angry with Solomon” because his focus on self and lack of intentionality to stay close to God led him into alliances and relationships that ultimately ruined him. It is not too late to course-correct. Today, ask God for help!