"Bad Habits"

Do you want the truth? Or something beautiful?

Bad Habits… Smoking, cussing, nail biting drinking or lying.
All these habits and more that we wish we could stop doing. You make New Year’s
Resolutions (I know have) about stopping them, only to fail year after year.
You can’t stop because you have been doing this one thing for so long it’s a
part of who you are. Part of what makes you… YOU… But do you want your bad
habits to be what defines you or what people use to describe you. “You know Lucy
the girl that cusses like a sailor”. “Betty that lady that gossips in the break
room all the time”. We all know someone we describe by something
they do because that is the only way people know who they are. SMH… I was
talking to a friend on the phone and every other word out of their mouth was a
cuss word. I mean she was dropping explosives everywhere. Not those words like
h-e-double hockey stick or what we call people that are acting like a donkey
(not that any of those words are okay). I’m talking words that would make your
mother get the soap.  I had to ask her
“Are you okay” because she sounded hostile, aggressive and angry.  Without missing a beat or answering my
question the conversation continued almost an hour with my ear being verbally
abused.  This made me think… Is that what
I sound like when I let those not so holy words flow from my lips? Talk about
“Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMM”.

The Truth Is……. Sometimes God uses other people to show us
what we look like, so to speak.  Sort of
an out of body experience to show us what other people see when we do certain
things. I know a lot of us say we don’t care what people think of us. If we are
being slightly honest with ourselves we do care, because perception is key.  Especially when it comes
to your work environment and in business. What about in church when you’re in a
leadership position or not you want to be represented in the best light.
Whether you’re inside the church or out. I am not telling you to be fake. Be
you but be the best you, you can be. Sometimes being on the outside looking in can
make us change some not so pretty parts of us. Imagine being able to step
outside of your body and see what other people see. Scary thought. What if you could
watch yourself gossiping about someone, really tearing down their character,
would you be able to continue being a gossiper? If you could step outside your
body and hear yourself using derogatory language, really going in with those
four or more letter words, could you go on? Say you were a cheater and you
could step outside yourself and self and see how what you were doing hurts your
husband or wife, would you keep cheating…  I don’t think you would be able to continue to
do those ugly things. Maybe you could because you just don’t care. SMH
again.  I can only speak for myself  when I say listening to my friend use words
that I have found myself using on a daily bases made me cringe not for her bur
for myself. It made me think if I’m offended by her, who I was offending. And
what did this say about me. Reality is we all want be better, we all have
things about ourselves that we want to change. Maybe we should try a little
harder to make those changes and not throw our hands in the air and say “That just
who I am”. The you that you’re claiming may not be the best you or the you that
God wants you to be. You are not your bad habits. 

Can you handle the truth?