Laying Down the Rails of Habit

     Habit training is something that makes so much sense, but can be so hard for me to implement.  I love the idea of "laying down rails of habit" for your children.  It goes along with

    Proverbs 22:6 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

     Unfortunately, I have realized that in order to teach my children positive habits that they can adhere to for the rest of their lives, I myself must unlearn a lot of bad habits of my own.  One of my worst is laying in bed until I absolutely have to get up.  Even with young children, I haven't yet broken myself of this habit.  Sure, I get up with the kids, take care of their needs, then go back to bed!  I don't get any more sleep doing this, since the kids are in and out of bed with me every few second, but what does happen is that they succeed in tearing apart the house while there is no one to supervise them.  There is every reason in the word for me to break this habit, but I keep chugging along those old tracks. 
     Knowing what a hold a bad habit can have on you, it is wonderful to see a good habit forming in your children.  I keep to the same school schedule every day, and now Anna automatically knows that when the babies go down for their nap, it's time to break out the math book.  One day I was right in the middle of something, and so I thought I would start school with Anna after I got finished.    By the time I got ready to do school with her, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had started on her own, and was more than halfway through with her lessons that day!  
     Being more attentive to the formation of habits, has made me realize just how much work I need in this area, but it is better late than never, and eventually new tracks will get laid.