We first make our habits, and then habits make us. At the outset, let us analyze what a habit is and how it is formed. Habit is formed by doing something over and over again until it becomes part of ourselves, and we cannot part from it. It is a cable. We weave a thread of it every day, and at last we cannot break it. If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end up by believing him. So says Edmund Burke, a great English orator and writer. So why not repeat good habits and follow them in our lives?!
How are good habits formed? The habits of virtue cannot be formed in the closet. Good habits are formed by acts of reason in a persevering struggle with temptation. Here are some good habits that will be useful for us in our daily life to the last.
First, let us take the quality of Charity. It should be the habit of our estimates. St. Paul, a great Apostle of Jesus Christ, combines the three virtues, faith, hope and Charity together. Then he says that the greatest of these is Charity. This Charity a good habit should be the kindness of our feelings, benevolence of our affections, cheerfulness of our social relationships, generosity of our living, improvement of our progress, prayers of our desires, fidelity of our self-examination and last but not least, the being and doing good of our entire life.
"When we have practiced good actions they become easy; when they are easy we take pleasure in them; when they please us, we do them frequently; and then by frequency of act, they grow into a habit", says Tillerson a virtuous writer.
Good habits cannot be earned overnight. Good habits to be used for happiness in this life must be formed early; and then they will become a treasure to be desired in the house of the wise and an oil of life in their dwellings.
All people in the world follow habits habitually. But what habits do they follow? That is the main thing to be contemplated upon right now and early in life too. Our good habits reflect upon our associates, traits and homes. Good habits are to the soul, what the veins and arteries are to the blood.
Punctuality, practicing honest labor, truth, cheerfulness, long-suffering, gentleness, temperance, goodness and faith are some of the traits of good habits. What is a good habit to one may not be as good to the other. So if your habits have traces of these fruits of spirit, then it goes without saying that they are good.
"Give a child the habit of sacredly regarding the truth; of carefully respecting the property of others, of scrupulously abstaining from all acts of improvidence which can involve him in distress, and he will just as likely think of rushing into an element in which he can't breathe, as of lying or cheating or stealing" says a great and learned man Brougham.
Habits good, work more constantly and with greater force than reason. "Sow and act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character, sow a character, and you reap a destiny". This is the philosophy of G.D. Boardman.
To sum up, we may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, industry or idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which we train our children. Let us teach our children good, right habits and their future life is safe.
Thank you for reading this patiently. This is also a good habit
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