The Power Of Habit

“They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.” Genesis 41:35-36

In the book “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg wrote:

“I had been in Iraq for about 2 months when I heard about an officer conducting an impromptu habit modification program in Kufa, a small city 90 miles south of the capital. He was an army major who had analyzed videotapes of recent riots and had identified a pattern: Violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size.

Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and all hell would break loose. When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: Could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said.

A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Masjid al-Kufa. Throughout the afternoon, it grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. Iraqi police, sensing trouble, radioed the base and asked U.S. troops to stand by. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8 p.m., everyone was gone.

When I visited the base near Kufa, I talked to the major. You wouldn’t necessarily think about a crowd’s dynamics in terms of habits, he told me. But he had spent his entire career getting drilled in the psychology of habit formation…

In some sense, he said, a community was a giant collection of habits occurring among thousands of people that, depending on how they’re influenced could result in violence or peace.”

One good habit of stewardship is developing the habit of saving.

Ask the Lord how you can better develop the habit of saving and being a good steward of all He has given you.

“If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master.” – Francis Bacon

“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” Proverbs 6:6-8