“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read... ”— Luke 4:16
A habit, you know, is something you wear. A riding habit is what you wear when you ride a beautiful horse. It is something that exactly fits you, that belongs to you, and becomes you.
A little girl in trying to tell what habit is said it is your second self. And she was right. You can’t get away from your habits any more than you can get away from yourself. Just think about it. If you take away the first letter you still have “a bit” left. If you take away the second letter there is still a “bit” left. If you take away the third letter you still have “it.” Our habits are ourselves.
A good boy has good habits and a bad boy has bad habits. And our habits are made when we are very young. Our brains when we are little children are just like fluffy snow. You know how soft and smooth new fallen snow is. Then you see a pair of little feet running across the snow and you have footprints in the snow. Then those same little feet travel back over the same tracks and return and by and by there is a path in the snow. Now thoughts and acts and words, repeated again and again make tracks in our brain and in our soul and these paths when they become well beaten are habits. Habits are the paths our thoughts and actions take.
Last summer at a farmhouse near my summer home in Canada I saw an interesting example of habit. My friend Mr. Cotter, whom his good wife calls “Sack,” is the warden in the little church at Port Maitland. That is to say, he is the chief man, next to the minister, and watches over the church, takes up the collection, and keeps his eye on the preacher and his ears open to the preaching. His father had been warden before him and before his father his grandfather had held the same important position. So Mr. Cotter knew all about the church.
One Sunday morning as usual he was getting ready for church and had harnessed up old Dolly and hitched her to the buggy and then gone in to wash his hands, put on his coat and take a last look at himself in the glass. That is the way all good farmers do. They dress the horse first, and then themselves.
When he came out Dolly was gone. She was nowhere to be seen. He looked in the shed, and in the field and behind the barn, but there was no Dolly. Where do you think she was? Yes! She had gone off herself with the empty buggy to church and Mr. Cotter found her looking over the fence, listening to the first hymn. Old Dolly, better than most people, had good old-fashioned habits of church-going, and she had a fine habit of being on time.
If you will take your New Testament you will find that three times we are told about the habits of Jesus. When He was twelve years old we read that according to His habit He went up to the feast at Jerusalem. When He became a full grown man He returned from His work to His own village at Nazareth and there according to His habit He entered into the little synagogue and took part in the service. Then near the close of His life we read that according to His habit He went out into the Mount of Olives to pray. These were Jesus’ habits. He had good home habits, good church habits and good prayer habits. Take your Bible and find the verses where these habits of Jesus are spoken of. You will find them all in the Gospel of Luke. You will not find the word “habit” but the word “custom,” which means the same. And then sit down and count over your habits, and ask yourself if you have good church habits, good prayer habits, good study habits, for your habits are just yourself. Kerr
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