A few months ago, I used a crude word at the office.  Not one of my finer moments.  Frustration was paramount and I yelled!  Just to clarify, it wasn’t swearing or taking God’s name in vain; just crude.  Much teasing followed.  MUCH!! 

The guys in the office were relentless in their teasing!  That alone should have made me want to change my ways but, in truth, the Holy Spirit had been nudging me toward better language choices for a while but I kept hitting the “ignore” key.  The teasing, even though it made me laugh, also made me hit the “pay attention” key.  I decided to change my ways and clean up my speech.  “I can do that!” I said to myself.  Well…easier said than done.  It comes down to input/output. 

I hear those words all too often throughout my day; television has lowered their standards and some of my friends use crude words.  Then there are the people I don’t know who aren’t impressed with my driving, the line they are standing in or the way their life is going in general.  Crude, profane, disgusting words are everywhere!  And I hear them all!  They became a part of my life.  What went in also came out.  So how could I change? 

As I do with just about everything in my life, I turned to scriptures.  Three popped up on my radar.  Ephesians 4:29 Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.  Proverbs 4:24 Avoid all perverse talk, stay away from corrupt speech.  Proverbs 141:3 Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. 

I got the message loud and clear that God was telling me to make better word choices.  To change my habits, I needed to change the input so that the output was better.  My good input came from time with God through the Bible and prayer.  I devoted more time to reading the Bible and then praying every morning.  I asked God to “guard my lips.”  God always answers a sincere heart.  I also curbed the TV shows that I watched.  Some shows I watched had worse language than others so those were the ones I curbed.  That wasn’t easy!  I thought I liked those shows but turning them off helped me get rid of bad input.  As it turns out, I don’t really miss the TV shows I cut out and I love my time with God every morning.  Better habits are being formed.

What bad habits do you need to get rid of?  Yours might not be your language, but the principles for change remain the same.  Change happens when we begin to make better choices with input and get God more entrenched in our lives for better output.