Spiritual Messages and Teachings for LDS Youth and Youth Leaders

Why are good habits so important?

By: John Hilton III and Anthony Sweat

From the blog: LDSWHY.com

Often times we talk about things not to do…

Like “Don’t swear” or “Don’t listen to bad music.” But in addition to avoiding the bad, good habits are important to develop also. Why?

Let’s look at tooth decay to illustrate.

toothdecay

Yikes! Tooth decay isn’t pretty. How does one prevent it? Normally by brushing and flossing regularly. But what happens if one slips out of the habit of  brushing and flossing? The tooth decay grows and over time becomes progressively worse. Simple good habits like brushing and flossing help prevent tooth decay.

Similarly, simple good habits like sincere prayer and scripture study help prevent spiritual tooth decay.

Chief Captain Moroni understood this principle. In Alma 59:9 we read, “(Book of Mormon | Alma 59:9)

And now as Moroni had supposed that there should be men sent to the city of Nephihah, to the assistance of the people to maintain that city, and knowing that it was easier to keep the city from falling into the hands of the Lamanites than to retake it from them, he supposed that they would easily maintain that city.”

What’s happening here? Moroni’s men had worked hard to capture a city, but rather than maintain the city, they lost it. Now they would have to recapture it. The point is, it would have been much easier just to maintain the city than to have to recapture it.

Good habits help us to maintain our spirituality rather than losing ground and trying to retake it. In addition, it’s much easier to maintain good habits, than to fall out of those habits and try to regain them again.

Is there a good habit you or I could be strengthening?

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