What do you practice?

This is what I put as my facebook statues yesterday.
    " If you practice anything long enough you get very good at it. If you practice greed, selfishness,     bitterness, lust, bad attitudes, sinful nature, etc. you will become very good at that -sometimes with out even trying. If you practice a good attitude, thankfulness, forgiveness, a giving heart, a Godly nature, etc. than you become very good at those things too. It may not be easy at first but if you on purpose practice something long enough it will become second nature to you and part of who you are. So ask your self today, What are you practicing? Is it trust worthy and good?"


(This was  much long post than I thought it might be and I know that many people wont read the whole thing b/c of the length but I know those that do will stop for just a minute and think about what they are perfecting in their lives.)
  
Here is the story behind that thought on the fb statues. It was one that lead to another. My 6 yr old son was playing with his stuffed animal and he pretended to poke his monkey in the chest with a pencil. I told him not to do that and he said he was just pretending. I told him I do not want him practicing meanness b/c the more he practices it the easier it gets. I asked him to be kind and to practice kindness. That got me thinking of some news that I had heard early that day about some friends who are having marriage problems.  In the last 6 mths I have had 3 sets of friends have major marriage problems. I wondered how did it get to this? They are all strong leaders and now their own lives are falling apart. All of their problems are huge but I believe all of them started b/c of practicing the wrong thing. Practicing something wrong may start out innocent enough. It may be a secret thought. Maybe something like- I am not happy and than wondering what could make them happier, or even just that person is really cute...and they seem super nice. It could be something like accidentally stumbling upon the wrong site on the web but staying there a moment to long...and than coming back to that site and others like it.  It could even be a simple friendship that has crossed the line, not physically but emotionally and maybe leading to the physical down the road.

     Maybe you are practicing the wrong thing  and it has nothing to do with a marriage. Maybe you are happily married or even single. Maybe it is your health. We can eat the wrong thing for years and know that it is not the best for us but b/c it is just easier , we keep doing it. Habits are very hard to break and sometimes the good ones are very hard to form. If you have not eating healthy meals than it is sometimes hard to start. If you dont exercise it may seem as impossible as parting the Red Sea to move stuff aside to find the space to exercise. But look at where you are and what you are doing and see if you are happy with your health , mind, and body. If the answer is no than maybe it is time to change some of the habits you are doing. Maybe it is time to start practicing some new things to form better habits.
Sometimes while driving your car you let go of the steering wheel to test to see if the car is out of line. We can usually tell b/c of the slight pulling against the wheel. The letting go is usually to just confirm. We than do what comes naturally with our cars...we get it fixed. If we don't fix it our tires get worn down to much on one side and eventually cause big problems with a break down in the tire and we end up on the side of the road now desperate for a fix. Do you see where I am going with this? 
You may also be practicing the wrong thing in your spirtual walk. Going to church only on sunday and than throughout the week trying to survive on that Word you heard from the preacher. The message may have been awesome and life changing but it was only about 30 mins to maybe 2 hrs of God's word. What about the other 6 days of the week. What are you watching on tv? What are you listening to on the radio? The tv shows now days do nothing to help us better ourselves as humans, it does nothing to give us peace in our day to day life. I mean look at the names alone..Revenge, Scandal, Desperate Housewives, and Mistresses. That is just on ABC, there are many more on the other channels. Ask yourself do I want those characteristics in my life? Do I want to live a life full of revenge? Do I want to be Desperate and even to be the Mistresses? Even if you answered yes I believe it is out of hurt and if you really seeked your heart you would really desire peace. Oddly enough, those things come by what you practice. Just like with the car and testing it for alignment, you too have to test your self for alignment. You should be able to tell from the small nudging in your heart that you are heading the wrong way, that you are out of line. If you notice that your desires is to talk more to the other person than you own spouse, you may be out of line. If you notice that you are continuing to gain weight and you feel terrible, your alignment with your health may be messed up.  If you notice that you are spending less and less time thinking about what glorifies God and more time thinking about ways to get back at a person and how this or that would fix this, than you may need an adjustment in you spiritual walk.  How come our cars get more attention when broken than we do? Sometimes we need to let go of our lives for a moment a see where it would head if left alone. If it is going to crash than we need to seek help bc if not our lives left alone may seem fine even with the small pulling the wrong way but eventually we will be on the side broken down and in desperate need of help.

Accidents happen. A thought about another person while married will cross your mind, a website will pop up sometimes while on the computer or even just a crazy commercial is just as bad as some sites, Days will go by and you did nothing but just survive and didnt think about glorify God. AT ALL. 
When the things happen dont just agree with it and say that is life b/c that is how the practicing starts, the accidental practicing the wrong things.  It is by not caring, by not fixing, by not seeking help when needed. Lets try to on purpose practicing being kind, being giving, being in love with our spouse. Let's on purpose practice watching things on tv that encourage us. We are like sponges and what we put in is the only thing that comes out. There is no other way for kindness. etc/to come out unless we put it in, unless we practice it.