Monday, January 17, 2011

Another Habit

This year may be a year of transition for me.  Not only do I have the whole text-message protocol (or lack thereof) to process, NOW I find out that I shouldn't be typing two spaces between sentences! I really am astonished at this. I've never even HEARD such a thing. The reasons make sense, and I'll put some effort towards changing that habit, but it won't be easy! In fact, right now I'm putting two spaces and a delete between each sentence. :]

What irks me just as much as the relearning is the fact that I was taught wrongly.  That really bothers me! It wasn't because the teacher was mean, or doing it on purpose (I learned in a class with both typewriter and computer). But it really gives substance to the scripture, "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher." (Luke 6:40) 


I've spent half my life in what I now discover is a bad habit since that 'full training.' How careful we need to be in choosing teachers! Typing two spaces, as hard as it may be to change, is a mild thing compared to other habits we learn and practice. 


Habit of overeating. Habit of laziness. Habit of self-serving. Habit of overspending. How about our thoughts? Habits of judgment, of assumption. Habits of seeing God inaccurately. Habit of believing our own strength is enough (or thinking that it SHOULD be). 


So much to learn, to change. The good news is that for all the important ones, the answer boils down to One Thing.


Love.


Love Him. Be loved by Him.

7 comments:

Rachel said...

I'm sticking with my two spaces, thank you very much! I worked at my college's newspaper and had to edit the articles to have one space between sentences... ugh. Makes sense for media, but outside of that I'm sticking with the way I was taught. The "rules" change too much to keep up ;) Did you know you don't need the last comma in a list anymore either?! This, that and the other thing instead of this, that, and the other thing. GAH!

Other habits, however, I definitely need to change. Thanks for that :)

EllaJac said...

Brave girl! :)

I think I knew about the comma... do we mean the one before the and? As in, "I made bread, cookies, stew, salad and pretzels." ?

annie said...

Ha ha! The two spaces thing has been all over my Facebook for the last couple of days. It changed sometime when I was in high school, because my dual enrollment college English professor told us about the change to one space and how we'd get points taken off if we forgot and did it the old way. And you're right about the comma after the and. It used to be an alternative correct grammatical structure, but now it's pretty much the only accepted way.

I have a ton of bad habits I need to work on, grammar not being one of them. The lollipop I am currently snacking on to satisfy my sugar cravings so I don't eat all the brownies in the kitchen is one way I'm (unsuccessfully) trying to work on those bad habits.

It never ends. But I press on to be made perfect in Him...

We started Isabel on a gluten-free diet about four weeks ago now and have noticed quite a difference in her belly and bathroom habits. She's not fully healed in just four weeks, but I think we're on the right track. I'm thankful it seems to be 'only' the gluten that bothers her, and not anything more (like dairy...yikes!) and I hope you find similar with your little one.

Happy Monday!

EllaJac said...

Annie that's funny! A lollipop to keep from the brownies... Soon perhaps you'll eat the brownies to keep from the corn syrup in the lollipops...? :D Love it!

I'm SO GLAD to hear that Isabel is making some progress! Praise God! We're plugging along, though we may end up with the blood test at some point. By the way, our doc has switched from using ImmunoLabs to another that does the same thing BUT doesn't offer all the dvd/info/support.. but it's half the price or so! ($160 I think he said)

CK said...

I'm not giving up my two spaces either. The newest version of APA writing format says to use two spaces. That is what I was taught in school and it's what I'm sticking with.

As for habits, I have several I need to work on. I'm currently trying to quit smoking. It's just a nasty habit that I want to be rid of.

annie said...

Oh, but Ella....the lollipops are organic! No corn syrup! Just lots and lots of natural, unrefined sugar. And honey. And agave nectar.

I hope the blood test offers some definitive answers.

EllaJac said...

Annie, I'd say you're good then! Hehe!

CK, other than this post when I wrote it, I can't seem to REMEMBER to use only 1 space. Too bad the computer couldn't manage that for me...

Smoking is a big habit to break! Are you a Christian? I believe *some* addictions like that are deeper than just the psychological/physical, and He has the keys! Hang in there though; you will be so happy to be free of it one day.