Creature of Habit

I am a creature of habit.  I like my schedules.  I like my routines.  When I first started staying at home with my oldest daughter, I formed a schedule.  We would do such and such on Monday, run these errands on Tuesday, and so forth through the week.  It worked well for us.  I got my shower at the same time every day, cooked at the same time, and put her to bed at the same time.  When my second daughter was born, the routine was gone for a while, but we slowly concocted a new plan and a better fitting schedule emerged.

Well with the many changes occurring in our lives recently (mainly my husband's new work schedule), my schedules have once again been thrown out the window.  I used to post around the same time Monday-Thursday, and now it is 11:00 pm and I am just now typing.  I am trying to embrace the unknown...no schedule set in stone, but it is hard.  New things and new routines just kind of frighten me.  I like the old; I like the familiar.

I realized today my youngest daughter seems to also be a creature of habit.  She will only eat the same certain things.  She refuses to try anything new.  Yes this is partly because she is 2 and that is what most 2 year olds do.  But I wonder if it is also because she has some of my personality.  We have also been going to the park more frequently with the warmer weather.  She has the same routine she likes to do at the park.  She has an order of playing and she doesn't like to veer off track.  There is only one slide she will slide on.  The others are perfectly fine and fun, but she likes her old faithful and familiar slide. Routines comfort 2 year olds.  They also need the familiar, but will she every grow out of this not trying anything new???

I posted recently about having my devotion time at a different time and different location and how uncomfortable that made me feel.  I was thinking about that again today and about my creature of habit tenancies.  It takes 21 days to form a habit, or at least that is what I have read before.  I can vouch and say that is probably the amount of days it took for me to form my habit of reading my Bible daily in the same place at the same time.  But, I don't ever want my time with God to be just a habit.  I want to love my time, cherish my time, and grow during my time with Him.  I don't want to sit down with my Bible and say "It is my scheduled time, let's mark this off my list."  I want my time with God to be a habit, but not in the negative way that habit can sound.

Today's Verse
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."  Jeremiah 29:13

I want to seek God with all my heart everyday.  Not because it is a habit; not because it is a chore, and not because it is on my to-do list.  I want to because I love Him and I know He has my best interest in mind.  I want to ask for that guidance that can only be given in spending time with Him.  It doesn't have to be the same time everyday.  It doesn't have to be the same way everyday.  But it does need to be everyday!

21 days is not very long.  21 days before you are stuck with something in your life, whether good or bad...the habit is there, and it just took a mere three weeks to happen.  But if we take the 21 days to try to get to know God better, the habit will form, and we will be blessed.