If you tell me what your habits are I can tell you what your life will be like in a few years. I can't predict the future and I have no idea what events will happen in your life, yet I can predict with accuracy who you will be by what you habitually do.
- If you save a certain amount of money each month for retirement, you will have financial peace in the future.
- If you exercise in a practical manner and on a consistent basis you will have lower stress, a healthier heart and body.
- If you visit with a counselor, read a few good books, journal and learn to communicate your feelings, you will have a stable emotional life and some strong relationships.
The things we do now that seem mundane develop who we are and our experiences in the future. So if I may meddle a little, what will your spiritual life look like in the future? (Realize I am coming from a Christian perspective on this topic) This may be the most important question we can answer because our relationship with God is the foundation to our lives. What spiritual exercises or habits are you developing in order to prepare a foundation for all the other decisions and experiences you will face in the future. Developing spiritually is essential (and I do not use that term lightly) for being able to develop as a human being. Habits are the behaviors that are automatic. If our behaviors are formed from incorrect beliefs about our self, our past or our brokenness, or how we fit into the world then the foundation of our lives is flawed and everything we build will be off center. Developing a healthy spiritual life forms a foundation, a view of life that is strong and stable. It takes about 2 months of consistency for a habit to form.
What spiritual habits will help the most? Great question, I spent my entire doctorate wrestling with this question. Although there is not exact recipe to spiritual growth, there are a couple essential ingredients needed to grow spiritually. The great news is that you don't need an advanced degree (in fact you are at an advantage if you don't have one) in order to grow spiritually. All you need are:
- Reflective Bible Reading - I would suggest starting with the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. You can go to youversion.com or biblegateway.com and set up a bible reading plan. Here is a great blog post to get you started. The key to remember is that Bible Reading is not intended as an academic pursuit but nurturing our soul through developing our relationship with God.
- Simple Prayer - I like using written prayers, especially when I do not know what to say. The psalms were prayers and you can simply pray a Psalm each day, or the Lord's Prayer. Start by saying the words exactly as they are found in the Bible and add your own prayers, needs, hopes and requests as they come to your mind.
- Generosity - there is something very powerful about putting our 'money where our mouth is.' In other words, putting our faith in action. When we give money to a church or a charity we are actually saying, God I trust you more than I trust my ability.
- Participation in an encouraging small group - It is really, really hard to grow spiritually without the support of others. I would suggest strongly that you join a small group at a church or grab a close friend who is already on their Christian journey and share with them what you are doing and where you want to go spiritually. Believe it or not, most pastors and ministers would drop just about everything if they had someone come to them and say, 'I want to grow spiritually, help me.' Trust me on this one! The Christian journey can't be taken on alone in the long term, if you want to grow let someone help you! Healthy accountability is a valuable ingredient to the spiritual growth process.
Now the work starts. In order to create a habit you have to do things and keep at it for a couple of months. I would suggest picking a time and scheduling daily bible reading and prayer. It does not have to be long, start with 10 minutes if you are starting from scratch. Then as you develop the habit of bible reading and prayer, add to it. By the way, journaling prayers is a great way to get going as well. Starting the day, on your commute, or ending the day are all good times to set for this spiritual habit building process. Having a set time and place on your schedule for spiritual growth is very important. I do not know anyone who consistently has time with God if it is not scheduled. I would also suggest systematically giving to a church or charity, our family does both and has been very helpful in our spiritual journey. We enjoy giving to Compassion International because we see directly how it benefits another individual.
The final step would be joining a small group or church. This is a difficult part of the spiritual development process, but very important in habit creation because it provides accountability and a place to put into practice everything we are learning from our habits. Don't try to find a perfect church, they are not our there, but find one and get plugged in.
Habits take time to develop, but if you make developing your spiritual life a top priority it will benefit every other part of you life. The interesting thing is that as we develop spiritual habits our lives will benefit others as well, that is a ironic part of the Christian life. As we grow, we start blessing others and this is the power of a spiritual habit.
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