Bad Habits – Today’s Youth Devotion

Bad Habits

Bible Reading: Genesis 25:29-34 Follow God’s example in everything you do. Ephesians 5:1

DO YOU HAVE any bad habits? Check out the list below. Do you

_____ chew your fingernails? _____ put things off until later?
_____ chew your toenails? _____ eat too much?
_____ chew carpenters’ nails? _____ eat too little?
_____ interrupt when others are talking? _____ watch too much TV?
_____ pull out your hair? _____ pick your nose?
_____ pull out someone else’s hair? _____ pick someone else’s nose?
_____ grind your teeth? _____ smoke cigarettes?
_____ insult people? _____ smoke cigars?
_____ forget to say please or thank you? _____ smoke old tires?
_____ lose your temper? _____ gossip about other people?
_____ other? _______________

Maybe you didn’t check any of the items on the list above. Maybe you checked them all! Either way, you probably have at least one bad habit—something you do that is rude or thoughtless or undesirable. Nobody is totally free from bad habits. Sometimes our bad habits are sinful. Sometimes they’re just annoying. And sometimes—as Esau found out (in today’s Bible reading)—they can really be hurtful and costly.

Whatever bad habit you may have, you don’t have to be stuck with it. It may take a lot of self-control, but you can overcome it. In fact, that’s one of the reasons God wants you to learn self-control. His Word commands us to “be clear minded and self-controlled” (1 Peter 4:7, NIV).

God wants you to be like him. He is always in control of himself and of the universe he has made. And no matter how strongly rooted your bad habits may be, God is able and willing to help you overcome them. He will help you, through the power of his Spirit, to learn and exercise self-control.

REFLECT: Did you check any of the bad habits in the list above? On the lines below, list three bad habits you’d like to get rid of:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Choose one of the above and start asking God for help to use self-control in overcoming that problem.

PRAY: “Father, you know that I’m weak in the above areas. But you are strong. Please help me to overcome my bad habit _________________________ in your strength.”