Powerful Habits

"Habits have deep roots. Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding. Custom becomes second nature, and its chains are not easily broken" (J.C. Ryle, Thoughts for Young Men, 10).

In Praise of Habits

"We eat, sleep, make love, shake hands, hug our children out of habit. Some things in life are too important to be left up to chance. Some things in life are too difficult to be left up to spontaneous desire - things like telling people that we love them or praying to God. So we do them "out of habit." Thus, in the church we generally do the same things over and over again, week after week, telling the same stories and singing the same songs" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life, 18).