Just the Way I Am - Part 1

You're in Charge

Habit #1, Just the Way I Am, teaches us to be proud of who we are and that we are in charge of ourselves. We control our feelings, thoughts, and actions. No one can tell us to feel or how to think!

You may be thinking that this can not be true! That your mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa always tell me what to do!

Although they may tell you what to do, they do not control the way you feel or how you should think. These people can effect your feelings and thoughts, but they never have control over them!

That's where you being in charge of yourself comes in. The people around us can effect the way we feel and how we may think, but we are always left with the final choice. We can choose to let what they did or what they said effect us in a positive or negative way. 

  

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon 

Feeling proud of who you are begins as you learn more about yourself and strengthens as you share who you are with others. Share your answers to the statements below with a friend! I'm certain you will feel proud of yourself "Just the Way You Are!"

1. Something I am good at is...
2. Something I have done recently that I am proud of is...
3. Something I like to do is...
4. Something I am able to do that may be hard for others my age is...
5. My favorite thing to do at school is...
6. My favorite thing to do at home is...
7. With my friends I like to...


A New Way to Look at You

Habits

Stop and think for minute...

In which drawler do you keep your socks?  

Where is the trash can in your kitchen? 

How do you take a picture using your phone? 

Have you ever wondered how you know the answers to these very simple questions and even how you do these things in your life everyday without even thinking about it?

The answer is because your mind has made finding your socks in right drawler, throwing the trash away in he right place, and clicking on the gray camera app on your phone a habit. Your mind and body has worked together to do these things so many times that you do not need to think about how to do them anymore.

So then, a habit is something we do over and over again without even thinking about. We have developed hundreds of habits throughout our lifetime. Many of those habits are probably good ones, while some may be bad and need to be worked on a little bit. Either way, good habit or bad habit, we have done these habits so many times that at this point we don't even realize we are doing it!

Take for example, the way we fold our hands before we pray.

Do you interlock the fingers together?          
Do you cups your hand together?
Do you keep your hands straight and point them up to heaven?

There is not wrong way to fold your hands for prayer, but you fold your hands the way you do now because you have made it a habit. Your folded your hands the same way for so long that it feels "natural and more importantly right."

But, what if you wanted to change the way you fold your hands before prayer. The good news is that you most definitely can because your are stronger than your habits! At first it will feel "weird and awkward" and you will have to think about it the way you want to fold your hands each time you pray. Along the way you may even go switch back to the old way your folded your hands before pryer. Eventually, folding your hands in the new way you choose will begin to happen without you thinking about it!  Folding your hands for prayer the old way you did it may actually feel weird now!


In order to continue to grow, our job needs to be to work on turing our bad habits (the things our parents and teachers remind us to do differently each time we do them) into something that can help us to be more successful each day!

As mentioned, there are some habits that we have that we are definitely in tune to, but most of the habits we have developed are ones that we are hardly aware of! Check out these read aloud books on Habits. See if you can pick out some of the Good and Bad Habits of the Brother and Sister Bear and Sam and his animals!

The Berenstain and The Bad Habit

Sam Who Never Forgets