Habits of a Godly Woman

INTRODUCTION

If you change your habits, you’ll change your life. That may sound like a bold statement, but I believe it’s true. To a great degree, your life consists of your habits—the things you think, say, and do repeatedly. The way you spend your time, your money, and your energy each day is largely based on habits. If you’re like most people, you have some kind of routine for every day. Even if the daily routine varies, you may have a routine for each week—certain things you want to do and certain things you have to do. Over time, those things have become habits for you.

All kinds of habits are at work in our physical lives, sometimes without our even realizing it. We have a habit of going to work, a habit of brushing our teeth, a habit of seeing the doctor for an annual physical, a habit of taking out the trash on certain days of the week, habits for cooking and cleaning at home, and habits with friends and family. We may also have habits regarding exercise or lack of exercise, or habits pertaining to the amount of time we spend watching television or looking at the screen of an electronic device.

We also have habits in our minds. We may have positive mental attitudes and thought patterns that cause us to be confident in everything we do. Or we may have habits of negative thinking that make everything feel like a chore. We may have ways of thinking about resources, such as money or time, that allow us to use them wisely, or ways of thinking that keep us continually in debt or stressed because we’re running late.

In addition to our physical and mental habits, we also have many emotional habits. We may be in the habit of feeling sorry for ourselves when we don’t get what we want. We may have a habit of becoming fearful when we hear thunder and see lightning. An emotional habit of anger or judgment toward a certain person may be ingrained in us. Or, when we see people who are obviously needy or struggling in life, we may have a habit of feeling compassion and reaching out to help them.

The habits I have mentioned are only a few of the habits that determine how we live our lives. I’m sure, if you stop and think about it, you could identify a lot of habits you live by. Some of those habits would be good, such as keeping your car clean, using coupons to save money at the grocery store, or visiting someone in a nursing home each week, and some would be ones you’d like to change, such as biting your nails, drinking too much caffeine, or being easily frustrated. The good news about habits you’d like to break is that they can always be changed! Every day you live, you have a chance to develop a new habit or to break a bad one and replace it with a good one.

When I hear women talk about their habits, they usually don’t mention their good ones, but they do talk about wanting to change their bad ones. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have some good habits, but I’ve also never met a woman who didn’t have other habits she would like to change. All of us have a mixture of good habits and not-so-good ones, so we all have room to improve.

In this book, I don’t simply want to talk about changing habits, though you will read a lot about that. I also want to specifically explore with you the habits of a godly woman—not just any woman, but one who wants to keep growing in God and live every aspect of her life as He would have her to live it. The book doesn’t address every single habit of a godly woman, but it does focus on some that are most important and that will help you go far as you seek to become a more godly woman.

Many adjectives can describe a woman. She can be successful. She can be beautiful. She can be smart. She can be a talented artist or singer or homemaker. She can be gifted in all kinds of ways and have lots of different attributes. But the best quality for any woman to have is godliness. I believe a godly woman is someone who is confident, peaceful, and enjoys life. She has developed habits that make her like Christ in her behavior, and she delights in continuing to grow in Him. She represents Him well everywhere she goes and is a blessing to everyone she comes in contact with.

Becoming a godly woman is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. The apostle Paul says we “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor. 3:18), which is a New Testament way of saying that God keeps changing us, continually taking us from one level of spiritual maturity to the next. One way to be disciplined and diligent about our spiritual growth is to purposefully develop habits that will help us become more and more godly. Instead of spending our time trying to break habits, I suggest focusing on making good habits. Focusing our energy in positive directions is usually a better path to change than continually focusing on our weaknesses, which can cause us to lose heart and remain stuck in the very habits we most need to eliminate. Through staying focused on positive change, we move toward becoming the people God wants us to be, and we get to experience the joy and sense of purpose that comes with fulfilling His plans and purposes for our lives.

God’s desire is for you and me to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). When I first read this verse, I read it in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, which helped me understand that being conformed to the image of Christ is to “share inwardly His likeness.” God is ready and willing to help us become more like Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, but He won’t do it all for us. We need to be obedient to His direction and work with the Holy Spirit to develop godly habits. I’ve written this book to help you do that.

At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a list of three or four Scripture references under the heading “Habit Builders.” These Bible verses and passages will help you know what God’s Word says about each habit and support you as you integrate each practice into your life. Experts say that developing a new habit or replacing a bad habit with a good one can take twenty-one to thirty days, so you can expect the development of godly habits to be a journey. It will take time to develop each habit, but once it becomes part of your life, you won’t have to build it again; you’ll simply need to maintain it.

When you reach the end of the book and have read about the various habits of a godly woman, you’ll find some helpful encouragement and advice on practical steps you can take to develop and strengthen the habits you’d like to see in your life. I’m happy to be able to share these insights with you, and I pray you will find this book valuable as you continue to become the woman God has created you to be.