Curious things, habits.
People themselves never knew they had them.
Agatha Christie
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Habits are unconscious routines or rituals, actions on autopilot, leaving your brain free to think about other things, which can be good — or bad. They are stored in the basal ganglia (where we also develop emotions and memories), a region that is out of our conscious control. This may be what makes habits so hard to break. You’re barely aware you’re doing them, if at all.
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All I know is that we are loaded down with old and stale stuff –
habits, customs, old attitudes already dead and gone.
Michelangelo Antonioni
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Nobody is suggesting we break those habits that serve us. Or continue habitually in things forbidden in the Bible. But what should we do with the annoying habits we don’t want?
First, evaluate.
I can do anything I want to if Christ has not said no,
but some of these things aren’t good for me.
Even if I am allowed to do them,
I’ll refuse to if I think they might get such a grip on me
that I can’t easily stop when I want to.
1 Corinthians 6:12 Living Bible
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Some of you may say, ‘We are free to do anything that we want to do!’
But not everything is good for you to do.
You may say, ‘We are free to do anything!’
But not everything helps you to be strong as a believer.
1 Corinthians 10:23 Easy English Bible
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Then we run to our Source of help in all things.
Let us have confidence, then, and approach God’s throne, where there is grace.
There we will receive mercy and find grace to help us just when we need it.
Hebrews 4:16 Good News Translation
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Then we accept that help, go forward in faith, and prepare to do the hard work.
A habit cannot be tossed out the window;
it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.
Mark Twain
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Knowing that we can.
I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13 New English Translation