Good Habits; Good
Spencer W. Kimball
suggested that we take a careful inventory of our habits. “Change,” he said,
“comes by substituting good habits for less desirable ones.” Then he added,
“You mold your character and future by good thoughts and acts.” (New Era, Sept. 1974, p. 7.)
“We sow our thoughts,
and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our
habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.”
(C. A. Hall, The Home Book of Quotations, New
York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935, p. 845.)
The future most seek
is a life motivated by good thoughts, expressed in good works, and sustained by
inner peace and respectable achievement.
We are not born into
this world with fixed habits. Neither do we inherit a noble character. Instead,
we are given the privilege and opportunity of choosing which way of life we
will follow—which habits we will form.
Confucius said that
the nature of men is always the same, however, it is their habits that separate
Good habits are not
acquired simply by making good resolves, though the thought must precede the
action. Good habits are developed in the workshop of our daily lives. It is not
in the great moments of test and trial that character is built. That is only when
it is displayed. The habits that direct our lives and form our character are
fashioned in the often uneventful, commonplace routine of life. They are
acquired by practice.
Solomon the wise
taught, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will
not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6.) e
good habits of a child’s early training form the foundation for his future and
sustain him in his later life.
In the conduct of our
lives we learn that good character-building habits mean everything. It is by
such behavior that we harvest the real substance and value of life. The way we
live outweighs any words we may profess to follow.
Mahatma Gandhi said,
“Man’s destined purpose is to conquer all habits, to overcome the evil in him
and to restore good to its rightful place.”
Bad habits are a
reflection of our thoughts and personalities, our behavior and conduct. Someone
has observed, “When a man boasts of his bad habits, you may rest assured they
are the best he has.”
Our great challenge is
to learn how to control ourselves. We must learn for ourselves and act for
Habits are subject to
change and improvement; An ancient proverb states that good habits result from
resisting temptation. Such resistance often takes the form of a persevering
struggle. When bad habits become a part of our lives and we desire to overcome
them, we must seek help.
It is a wonderful
feeling to conquer wrong practices and to be free and unencumbered from their
detrimental effects, both physically and mentally. When we have conquered our
bad habits and replaced them with good ones, living as we should, then we are
on our way to real freedom.
We should become so
involved in acquiring good quality traits and participating in
character-building activities that there is no time to engage in anything
worthless or harmful.
We begin, then, with
our thoughts and end with our destiny. Our destiny is determined by our
character, and our character is the sum and expression of our habits.
is won by hard work.
Ernest L. Wilkinson
said: “Character … is not something to be obtained by ease and indolence or
being socially agreeable. It cannot be acquired by absorption or by proxy or on
the auction block. It is a reward derived from honest toil in overcoming
difficulties. We grow by mastering tasks which others consider impossible.”
Yes, character must be
formed in this life with good habits supplying the building material. When the
qualities that are desirable in individuals become universal in the people of a
nation, that nation also will have character. Goodness either in a person or in
a nation is not simply the absence of wrongdoing. It is a love of and practice
of all things that are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.
talk by Delbert L. Stanley: Good Habits Develop Good Character