Why Habits Are So Important → A More Beautiful Life Collective

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Introducing A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast! I’m so excited to have the chance to continue teaching… just in a different way. I hope that you enjoy listening! This week, we are talking about why habits are so important. We talk about how habits are a form of worship that shows who we are worshipping. Take a listen!

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Links:

Download the notes for our habits survey here. You can subscribe to the blog to access our free subscriber library for more bible studies, devotionals, and printables.

Here at A More Beautiful Life Collective, we know that the hectic hurry of everyday life can drown out our focus on what really matters. This podcast is a moment to intentionally pause and realign our focus. Together, we’re working to find the rhythm of Peace in him through the pace of beauty and order. Thanks so much for joining me.

Tale of Two Habits

Picture with me for a moment, you wake up in the morning, and you’ve already overslept. You walk out and your house is a mess. There are things all over your counter. You look at the pile of laundry on the floor. Nothing’s where it should be. And you have to rush out the door because you need to be at work in less than half an hour.

I think all of us have felt this way at some point, whether that was in high school or in college. But the thing is, the way that you start your day is going to determine how your whole day goes. And sometimes I think that we focus so much on all the things that we have to do, that we miss out on the little things that can make our life so much better.

And so that’s what we’re going to focus on in this first episode of A More Beautiful Life Collective podcast.

Habits to Make Life Easier

As we think about all the things that we hope to do in our life, a lot of times we can skip over those parts of the day that seem a little bit mundane. If we think about the things that we want to do, we may focus on our end goals, our New Year’s resolutions, and the things that we want to do in about five years.

And in doing that, we don’t realize how we can actually get to that moment. Instead, we get caught up in the end goal without ever seeing the building blocks that are going to get us there.

We’re going to be focusing on habits over the next series of podcasts. If you would like a printable copy of the notes that we’re looking at, you can go to www.amorebeautifullifecollective.com. And that will lead you to a subscribe link, where you can enter your email, and then you’ll be able to download the printable version of all the notes that we’re going to be talking about. The reason why this is important is because it gives you a very valuable book list that you can look at, to find what I used in order to put this together.

As we think about this, I want you to think of these habits as rhythms. It’s not necessarily a checklist. It’s not something that you can go through that you can put on a to-do list every day. Where you could say, Okay, if I do these things, something is going to happen for it. It’s not a checklist that you need to do.

Instead, it’s a rhythm of your life. I played percussion whenever I was in high school, and I was on the drum line. And the thing is the drums I played first base, so I wasn’t even like the main drum line or the snare drum or anything like that. Instead, I was just the first base, which means I was the littlest drum on the baseline. And so the thing that I would do is just feel the beat of the music. Now, I wasn’t singing any, any. I wasn’t playing any musical notes. I wasn’t singing the melody. But instead that beat, that baseline, was the thing that drove the whole band. And if you took that away, you could tell. You can feel that.

A lot of times at our church, we would normally just have a guitar instead of having a full band play. And anytime you hear the drums being added, it changes the whole way that the music sounds.

Habits are like the beat of your life. They’re the heartbeat of your life. And the thing about that is it’s the lifeblood of everything that you do. But all too often we focus on just that melody, just the thing that you hear the thing that you see the goals, and the actual results of your life that you get. And in doing that you skip over the things that are actually going to get you there.

It’s these rhythms.

An Overview of Our Habits

So as we look at all of this, we’re going to be going over several different things. Today, we’re going to be just talking about habits in general. And then we’re going to look at technology and some spiritual disciplines. We’re also going to focus very much on this idea of your household, these relationships.

This is not necessarily something that’s geared for younger kids, there is something on the blog that you can download. View the post here. It’s geared for younger kids, but it is a great overview of the habits you need to have as a Christian. That’s the basic basic building blocks of your Christian faith. But instead, this is something we’re going to add to that. So I’m assuming that you are trying to, you know, pursue prayer, reading your Bible, and doing those basic things.

This series is taking it a step further, we’re looking at how your parenting should look different if you are trying to live a life for God, how your hospitality and your relationships with your community should look different. A lot of this is based on the book Habits of the Household by Justin Whitman Earley. I would recommend anyone to pick up that book and take a listen because it’s definitely something that you want to hear.

As we go through this, the key passage that we’re going to be looking at is Psalm 127. I’m going to read that in just a second. But everything that we talked about over the next few weeks, it’s based on this passage right here. And so I definitely want you to look at that and to study that in more depth. So I’m gonna go ahead and read that. And as I read this, I want you to think about whether or not you feel like your life is defined in this way.

Alright, so this is Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord washes over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious soil, for he gives to His beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb of reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them, he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

To me, this passage speaks so much of where we put our focus. The whole point of this podcast is we pause in the day and say, Okay, where is my focus right now? Am I focusing on all the things that I need to get done all the things that are going on at work? All the problems that I have with my friends, the ways that my children may be bothering me? Am I focusing on that? Or am I focusing on God?

And the thing is, we fill our lives with so much anxious toil, that so many times we think that we’re the ones that are accomplishing things that are going to make our lives fruitful, but we’re not. Instead, Unless the Lord builds the house, we’re going to be laboring in vain. Everything that we do, is in vain.

Assess your Current Habits

So the next thing that I want you to do is I’m going to ask you a series of questions. And as I ask you these questions, I want you to think about whether or not you do these things. Of these, I’ll ask you if they are true or false. Some of them are things where you need to rate how often you do these things. But really, this is your litmus test, if you are thinking about how you are creating these rhythms to create what I’m going to call a spiritual, vibrant home, which is from the book, A Spiritually Vibrant Household.

If you’re trying to gauge where you’re at, you need to pause and look at your moment right now, not the picture, perfect moment your ideal? Yes, you want to get to your ideal, but you need to be honest with where you’re at right now. And so here’s a series of questions. As we go through this. If you have a pen and paper, you can write down your answers on this. Again, if you want to find a printable version, you can go to the blog and subscribe, and then you can get a printable version of this habit survey.

Download the notes for the Habit survey for FREE to get your Habit survey here. Looking for a workbook version that focuses specifically on the basic spiritual disciplines you need to have. Check out our habits guide in the post here.

Visit A More Beautiful Life Collective Shop for bible studies, planners, and other resources.

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So let’s start with our first question. I have goals for myself and my family. True or false? I feel like the choices I make are informed by the goals that I have. True or False. My habits are consciously aligned with the goals that I have. For me and my family, too, or false?

Now, for the next couple of questions, I want you to think about technology. So first off, we’re looking at the time that we spend on technology. So I spend the following amount of time on technology. Think about daily first, less than 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, three plus hours. I’d like for you to go ahead and you can pause this episode and go do this. Now if you do not have the screen time enabled, which some of my friends told me Android also does. iPhone users, I’m not sure. But on the iPhone, they have the screen time app. If you don’t have that enabled, you need to go ahead and enable it now. We’re actually going to look at that either next week or the week after that. We’re going to go through your screen time and see where you’re at. But it’s important that you have an actual understanding of how much time you’re spending on screens. Now, you know, I was a teacher before I stayed home and I was on the computer literally the whole time. You know, we had a screen going in the background. All my students were on iPads. So I get that screens are essential. But you want to make sure that you’re not doing so much mindless, inhaling of entertainment on screens, the mindless scrolling it. So it’s important that you know where you’re at. So first, you have to look daily, at how much time are you spending, you can divide that up into work and play time on your screens. And then also think about weekly.

So for weekly Do you spend zero to two hours, three to five hours, or six plus hours on technology weekly? If you know that daily, you’re spending three plus hours you can’t circle or say that you’re spending zero to two hours weekly on it. So you have to be honest with those numbers. A lot of times I think daily, we’re pretty honest. But then weekly, we want to minimize that number because it makes us feel bad. Alright, next one. I feel like I’m in control of my technology habits, not like my technology is in control of me. Is that true or false? How often do you check your phone? Daily? Is it every 15 minutes, every hour, every two to three hours?

All right, switching gears, how often do you do the following? So first, focusing on Bible reading? How much do you do individual Bible reading? So you find yourself opening your Bible? Do you do that every day, every three to five days, or never? What about communal Bible reading? Do you do that every day, every three to five days, or never? Next are the same questions but about prayer. What about individual prayer? Do you pray by yourself every day? Every three to five days or never? What about communal prayer every day, every three to five days, or never? I think a lot of times with this, you could be really good at one but not so much at the other. So you may be very consistent and waking up every morning and individually reading your Bible. But then whenever it comes to spending time with family or with friends, unless you’re at church, you never do it. Or you could only pray at church, which means that automatically you’re only doing that every three to five days, or not even that much depending on how often you go to church.

All right, so the next question again, this is after we look at spiritual disciplines, I don’t want you to stop there. I think a lot of times we can look at habits and we can talk about reading our Bible and prayer. And that can be it. But really, there are so many more spiritual disciplines or rhythms, things that you need to do in your life to help you in your spiritual walk. And so that’s where we’re going to look at next. Alright, so first, we’re going to look at the household, and then everything we’re going to talk about later on kind of builds on this. So first, who do you would consider your household? Is it just your immediate family? Or do you also consider your extended family friends, church members, and colleagues? Are they your household or your family as well? So thinking about that number? How many people does that include? You have to do some quick math for that one. How do I interact with my household daily? So do you do meals with them chores, prayer time, worship, time isn’t just screentime? Is it just shuttling them around as you go to daycare, or drop off pickups? If it’s just you and your household? Because you’re single you’re at home? Maybe you’re working? Is there a way that you interact with other people daily that you even if it’s not necessarily who you would consider your household? What about weekly? So do you go for outings? Do you go to church, we’ll talk about some routines that we have and some traditions that we have in my house.

So there’s things that I do I go to church, but then we also do a family movie night. So that’s a different way that I interact with my household that I don’t do every day. So I think it’s important to talk about weekly as well as daily. All right, how often do I get with the people in my home? at a table with no screens? Is that every day, every three to five days are never? How often do I invite people into my home? Every day, every three to five days, or never.

Next, a different type of spiritual discipline, but still talking about food. How often do you fast? So you’re abstaining from food or something else? Is it weekly, or monthly? or never? What are some of the things that you fast from if you normally do fast? This is one thing that I definitely struggle with. I am not someone who’s fast, very frequently. And so thinking about what I can fast from is a big thing but also having the discipline to actually go through with it is very it’s a struggle for me.

All right, so switching gears to our last topic, I view my work as a calling. True or false. I view my work as a passion, true or false. I view my work as a way to spread the Gospel, true or false. And lastly, I view rest, as it time to recuperate, after giving my all at work, or is rest a time to celebrate the time I’ve given at work? Or is it a way to work out the energy and passion I’ve cultivated during rest.

So all of these questions as you go through this survey, and again, if you’d like a paper version of this, you can go to the blog, and you can download it there after you subscribe.

But the purpose of looking at all of these things is you (1) can get a preview of all the different topics that we’re going to talk about in the future. But then you can also again, assess where you’re at. As you think about the habits that you have in your life, you need to register some good habits that you have, and maybe the ways that you’re falling short with those things.

So over the next several weeks, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be looking through these habits, and we’re going to be considering how we can help these habits to grow in our life. We want to number one, assess the habits we already have. And then we want to think about the habits we want to include. And so we’re going to go through the whole process of how we decide what our current routine is, and what we want our routine to be so that we can achieve those goals that we want for our life. I’m excited that we can start doing this podcast. And my goal is that every Wednesday, there’ll be a new podcast in your feed. Again, I’m going to keep these between 15 and 20 minutes so that you can get the information, use it, and apply it. But it’s not going to be long-winded because these are solo episodes. As we go through all of these things. I’ll link what I have resources to in the show notes. But I encourage you again to go to the blog and get those downloadable resources because they’re free. And I think it can be a very, very valuable asset to you.

Thanks so much for joining me at A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast. I’m Cayce Fletcher. And I hope I’ll see you next week.

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