Since elementary school, I have had chronic migraines. Over the years I've learned that the migraines come from things like eating too much sugar, not drinking enough water, and having onions. While I can usually moderate my sugar and water intake, it's hard to know exactly what has onions in it and what doesn't. (Especially since they so often look like the clear part of tomatoes!) Because I am not able to distinguish very well what has onions in it, I still end up with many headaches. I'm used to it now, though. With most migraines, I am now able to function somewhat normally during the day because I am used to the pain and know what to expect.
I feel like this human ability to get used to things can be a great blessing, like when a family moves to a different neighborhood and the children are able to make new friends and become part of the community. Or when things aren't going so great financially and you need to live within a smaller budget. Human adaptability is truly a great thing.
However, I feel like care should be taken to not get used to things that aren't good. In an extreme case, one should not get used to abuse and believe that they have come to deserve it. Do not believe that it is the norm.
Just like we shouldn't believe abuse is normal, we shouldn't believe other negative things are normal as well.
During road trips to California, I notice that as we get closer and closer to our destination, I tend to go a little faster than I should. When there are no stop lights and hardly anything in view, it's easy to try to justify your right to go faster than the speed limit. I then find that for the next week after I get back from vacation that I need to routinely slow down my speed on the highways because I've become so used to the higher miles per hour.
The same goes for movies. There was a point in my life where I began to watch almost whatever movie was in the theater. I didn't seem to have many standards when it came to what I viewed, except that I wouldn't see movies that were rated R. However, I saw plenty of PG-13 movies that probably should have been rated R. I got used to the poor language, large amounts of violence, and the sex/nudity that I saw on the screen. If ever I wondered whether I should watch a movie, I would compare the ratings to another movie I had viewed recently. ("I think one of these other movies I saw had this much violence, so this movie should be okay, too.")
It wasn't until I broke up with my movie-going boyfriend that I stopped watching as many movies and became more sensitive to what I viewed. For awhile there I would pull out a movie I had really liked in the past, only to spend the whole time watching it cringing and wondering what I had been thinking when I liked it so much in the past.
One thing I get used to very quickly is repeating my prayers over and over again. The reason why this is a problem is because I truly believe that God is a person and that He listens to my prayers. If I keep repeating my prayers, then I am not really conversing with God at all. I need to remember He's my Heavenly Father and even though He knows what is going on in my life, He still wants to hear from me.
To correct this habit or adaptation of mine, I like to create prayer lists for my morning and night communication with God. This is a list consisting of: 1) people or things I am thankful for, 2) people who may need blessings or help, and 3) things I need help with.
I do this because I know that God answers my prayers. In fact, He answered one of my prayers last week. I was doing genealogy and prayed to find an ancestor's parents. Not only was I able to find this person's parents in under four hours (I had been looking for years), but I was able to find their six other siblings as well. Imagine my excitement!
What can you do to break your habits or change what you think is normal? Comment with your ideas!
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