Nathan and the habit

When I taught Bible classes back in California, we had a little fellow whom everyone loved. His name was nathan and he was a little genius, a little five year old boy who would sit in his classes and listen carefully. He was not a troublemaker - in fact, he was scoring high in reading and comprehensive skills. There was just one problem he had that drove the teachers and his parents crazy. You see, when Nathan would listen to the teachers, he would suck his thumb and twirl his hair.

Twirl his hair...take one finger and wind a thatch of hair on his crown and then unwind it again, over and over and over. Soon his hair in that little fifty-cent piece-size area began to come out by the roots from all the habitual tugging. He was literally going bald in that spot! His parents tried numerous ways to stop Nathan, but to no avail. Finally they had no choice but to shave his hair to a tight crewcut in order to keep him from getting hold on any longer hair.

It doesn't seem like much to just sit and tug once in awhile...but soon that habit gets ingrained and soon although nobody noticed before, the bald spot of sinful habit grows and grows. Unless the habit of sin is stopped, drastic measures might have to be taken...