Articles
Back In The Routine
We are settling back into our routine. The holiday break is over. The candy has been eaten or given away. The decorations have all been stored. So, life begins.
We are creatures of routine. We go to bed and get up about the same time every day. We do not vary what we eat a great deal. Our exercise or lack thereof is about the same.
Our routine in our spiritual life is about the same. We either read the Bible more or we fall back into the Sunday and Wednesday routine and let that time suffice for our Bible edification. We either pray or we don’t. We neglect our relationship with God, or we grow. Our routine can be good, or it can be bad. It is good in that it helps to keep us to be stable. Most people do not like change. It can be bad because, if we stay in a routine long enough, it can become a grave. We become mindless and thoughtless about our relationship with God. Our worship can become so routine that passion for God and a desire to magnify and praise Him is lost. What if we kept our spiritual life fresh? What if our prayers were alive? What if our worship was renewed? Worship is about our adoration and love for God. How can that ever become routine? Yet that is what Satan wants.
Our marriages can become routine as well. We can continue lacking the communication that would nurture our relationship with one another or we can break out and concentrate on being more engaged. The average husband and wife spend about 3.5 minutes per day talking. That is usually about the bills or the kids. It takes effort and constancy to be effective in communication. When we do communicate, what if we concentrated on what the other person needed more than what we need? What if we listened more than we talked? What if we asked questions more than lectured? Communication is about making information common. It is not a monologue. It is an investment in the other person. Yet the dysfunction of communication is how Satan destroys many marriages.
Our relationship with our children can become routine. It is hard to be innovative as a parent. It is usually what it is. This is one area of our relationship that is really challenging to rise above the routine. We wake them up. We feed them breakfast while they watch Paw Patrol or Mickey Mouse. We get their clothes changed. We carpool them to school. We go to their school functions. We pick them up. We bring them home. They get their homework. They play. We eat supper (seldom together). They bathe (sometimes). We put them to bed. The next day, it starts all over again. Wait! Where was the time to talk to them about their lives? Where was the time to pray with them? Where was the time to read God’s word? Where was the time to enjoy life with them? Then one day we wake up and they are gone. What happened? Where did they go? Where did the time go? Yet that is how Satan wins our children.
I, too, am a creature of routine. Few are not. Again, a routine is not bad...until it becomes our god. All Satan has to do to win is to lull us into lifelessness through our routine. It does not take effort to do the routine. It takes purpose, diligence, and attention to step out of the routine and be alive. It starts all over again every day. Wait, there is the routine! Breaking out of the routine can become routine too. We must challenge ourselves to be fresh and alive while living with the routine.
Rickie Jenkins
