S is for Save

I received a text on Saturday from a friend. Here is the conversation:

“Oh dear my computer is frozen and I’m afraid to close it because I have been working on my personal history and haven’t saved it before it froze. Is it safe for me to close the computer or force quit? I am nervous about this because I have been working on it since noon! Help please! What should I do?”

My answer? “Restart your computer and hope for the best” The conversation was wrapped in irony, because three days earlier, we had talked about the importance of saving documents.

That problem never happens to me…anymore. Why? Because I have been burned so many times before! I can recall multiple occasions when hours and hours of work just “disappeared” because I didn’t save my work as I went along. I ended up staying up all night to recreate what I had already created in order to meet some deadline.

It is always horrible when it happens, and over time I would make a personal commitment to do a better job of saving my work – and I would – until I got lazy. Then I would get burned again.

Now I know that there are solutions for saving documents. For example, Google docs has an autosave feature as do many other applications. Some documents save the most recent version to recover in case the computer crashes, so there are solutions, but you have to know that in advance.

For me, there must have been a data loss that frustrated me so much that I changed my behavior. I don’t know precisely when it was, but at some point in time I began to make a new habit: I now hit “Command+S” like I have OCD.

Whenever I am working on a computer, after every paragraph, edit, crop, paste or change, I hit “Command+S.” Even if I don’t need to. It is routine. It is a habit. When I am working in Google Docs and saving is automatic, I still hit “Command+S” like clockwork. (For the record, I just saved this draft – again.)

The reason I am so fanatical? I do not want to risk losing what I have worked to gain.

(FYI: My friend was able to recover her lost work, so all is well – other than elevated stress levels.)

There are things in our lives that SHOULD be was automatic as saving our documents. Things that are much more important, and have the potential to have a greater eternal impact on our lives than anything we could ever do on a computer.

For example:

• When I was a missionary, I was in the habit of rolling out of bed, right onto my knees to start the day with a prayer. THAT was a good habit.

• It should be a “no-brainer” by now that every morning before school we gather as a family and read scriptures together and pray together? Why would we do that? Because it is good for us, and because the Lord has asked us to do it.

• Going to church every Sunday to partake of the Sacrament should be automatic. It shouldn’t be a question or a discussion – it should just happen.

Yet all three of these examples are ones which have NOT always been automatic in. my life.

Did I retain the habit of rolling out of bed onto my knees? Nope. I was better at it before.

Do we ever miss family scripture study and prayer? Yes. Oddly, it was easier when there were more people in the house. Now that we are down to three, it seems like the “automatic” nature has diminished.

There are lots of things in our spiritual lives that should be automatic, and if they aren’t, they are things we should be striving for.

Elder Richard G. Scott taught about spiritual habits:

“Our Father in Heaven has given us tools to help us come unto Christ and exercise faith in His Atonement. When these tools become fundamental habits, they provide the easiest way to find peace in the challenges of mortality” (link)

He listed four items:

• Prayer

• Scripture Study

• Family Home Evening

• Temple Attendance

“These four tools are fundamental habits for securing your life in the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Remember our Savior is the Prince of Peace. Peace in this mortal life comes from His atoning sacrifice. When we are consistently praying morning and night, studying our scriptures daily, having weekly family home evening, and attending the temple regularly, we are actively responding to His invitation to “come unto Him.” The more we develop these habits, the more anxious is Satan to harm us but the less is his ability to do so. Through the use of these tools, we exercise our agency to accept the full gifts of His atoning sacrifice.”

The more we develop those habits, the less ability Satan has to harm us. Remarkable.

How do we make that happen? Practice, practice practice. And more importantly, we need to get back up when we fall – or fail. We need to keep at it until the habits are ingrained.

In the book, “The Power of Habit,” Charles Duhigg makes this observation: “This is why habits are so powerful, they create neurological cravings.”

How cool would it be if our spiritual habits were so ingrained that we crave them? I know there are times where I have had a taste of it. I notice a difference when I am not in the scriptures on a regular basis. If a couple weeks go by where I am unable to take the sacrament, I notice – I feel it.

Duhigg also said, “Change might not be fast and is not always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

“We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits; we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.” (C.A. Hall)

Elder Delbert L. Stapley taught:

“Maintaining good personal habits which are pleasing to our Heavenly Father will strengthen our character, increase our influence for good, improve our example, bless our loved ones and friends, enrich our lives, and enable us to accomplish those things that yield true personal satisfaction and build peace and happiness in our hearts. We will have joy eternally, possessing a treasure to be much desired and sought after, for the Lord gives this assurance: “Inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” (D&C 58:28.)

How do we start? In the case of hitting “Command+S” it was a matter of reminding myself on a regular basis that disaster looms if I don’t, and a better life awaits if I do.

I imagine the answer is the same for spiritual habits as well.