Adventures in Undoing Idolatry: How our House Became a Home [Excerpt]
Want to change harmful habits? First change your beliefs, explains Craig Groeschel in this story about breaking free from materialism. [Excerpt from Craig's new book Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World.]
Instead of trying to convince you of the importance of budgeting, saving, and planning (all of which are important and necessary), I’m going to offer something often overlooked that should come before we try to change our behavior. Remember our first problem is a belief problem. Belief overflows to behavior. First we need to change what we believe. When we truly change what we believe, we’ll gladly change how we behave.
I’ll give you an example. Amy and I have always enjoyed keeping our house nice, especially for company. Years ago, if you called and told me you were coming to visit in an hour, our routine would have looked something like this: I’d run to tell Amy that you were coming. She’d ask when. I’d tell her in an hour. She’d panic. For the next 59.5 minutes we’d run around throwing stuff into a closet and explaining to the kids that “under no circumstances do you open that closet!” Then we’d light some candles to give our home that welcoming scent. My job included putting on a worship tape to set the spiritual mood. (If you don’t know what a tape is, ask someone over forty.) After freshening up we’d wait for you for the final .5 minutes to put on the ourhome- and-family-are-perfect show.
