Creating New Habits For Wandering Hearts

I recently finished reading Habits of the Household. It is a wonderful book that helps point its readers toward habits we could build into our lives that truly reflect our values and beliefs. As Christians, we may believe in our head that God is worthy of all praise (or our time, our money, our attention, or energy etc) but in our day to day, do we really model that in our personal lives? This book is chock full of practical ideas for the Christian walk as it applies to family life, but it left me with something much deeper than a list of things to try. It left me with conviction. It’s really pulled me to think about what it looks like to actually live what I say I believe.

How does my everyday, normal, and mundane life reflect that I truly believe that God lived, He died, He rose, and is coming back? Not simply by doing my devotions and being a regular, active attender in my church, but in how I plan my week, the way I manage bedtime rituals, how I consider my priorities in my marriage. This conviction wasn’t a heaping guilt-filled feeling, but through the pages as I read, I just experienced a growing and gentle pull on my heart as sort of a revelation. It was this: I have drifted and the Spirit was lovingly calling me back to Jesus through these practical ideas.

The author repeatedly returned to the concept that we already have habits. Every one of us. Our morning routines, our tv/screen time, how we approach discipline with children, and more. The question isn’t whether we have them—it’s whether they’ve been shaped intentionally by the things we say we treasure.

There is, of course, the beautiful tension theologians often call the “already and the not yet.” Christ has already secured our salvation, but the world has not yet been made new. We already belong to Him, yet we are still being transformed into His likeness. We don’t perform these acts for Christ so that He will love us; we respond with lifestyle changes because He already does.

Jesus tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). We often think of that verse in terms of money, but I wonder if it reaches further than that. Where your attention is, there your heart will be also. Where your effort goes. Where your calendar fills. Where your thoughts run first thing in the morning. Our habits quietly, interestingly reveal what we treasure over and over again.

As a birth doula, I live an on-call life. I’ve been conditioned over ten years not to assume tomorrow will unfold the way I’ve planned, so I’ve adapted parts of my life to reflect that. I clean the kitchen before bed because I may leave for a birth at two in the morning and need a sitter to take up the morning work. I pack lunches the moment we return from school pickup for the same reasons. I schedule meetings on the earliest available date because I know firsthand how quickly plans can change. I don't make hard commitments. And so on.

Ironically, I’m often more prepared for an interrupted schedule for work than probably what I could be for Jesus’ return. ‘Cause he IS coming back. But I put off the things that reflect that.

Tomorrow I’ll spend more time in the Word. Next Sunday we will try again for Sabbath. Next month I’ll plan that date with my husband. But James reminds us, “You do not know what tomorrow will bring” (James 4:14).

As I have been contemplating this book, I’ve found myself returning to the words of Come Thou Fount: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.” I’ve especially been thinking about that word fetter. Perhaps the small, ordinary habits of the Christian life become little links in a gracious tether—not because they hold me back, but because they gently keep reminding our wandering hearts to return. Binding my wandering heart to Thee.

It’s an invitation for me to practice morning gratitude instead of bracing for impact at the heaps of need that come from my children. Opening my Bible or devotion app before opening my inbox. Speaking a blessing over my children at night before rushing to my nightly binge. Planning intentional time with my spouse more than daydreaming of my next business goals. These habits don’t earn God’s favor; Christ has already accomplished that. Instead, they quietly remind my heart, again and again, where my hope is. Through these habits of… intentionality.

So in my thinking of it all, I wanted to give it back to my church as a community call to action as well as encouragement. Church, you are loved far more than you know. Jesus died for you, rose again for you, and He is coming back for you. He deserves all of our praise, our attention, our effort, and our joyful, countercultural intentionality.

We don’t know what tomorrow holds. But we do know who holds it. So if the Holy Spirit has been gently nudging your heart toward something, don’t wait for next week, next month, or when life finally slows down.

How about today? May the little intentional habits of today become the gracious fetters that keep drawing our hearts back to Christ until the day we see Him face to face.