Prickly-pear Cactus
Object LessonNature Nugget★★★★The prickly-pear cactus is made of many large, circular pads. These fleshy pads are covered with needle-sharp spines that are actually leaves. Because cacti live in deserts, they must conserve moisture. That’s why their leaves grow hard and sharp.
Prickly pears store water in their pads. Also, their roots grow near the sandy surface in order to collect rainfall. During drought, cacti use the water they’ve stored, shriveling as they do.
Spines protect the cactus from animals eating it. But prickly-pear spines, when young, are soft and pliable. Only as they age and get exposed to heat and dryness do they stiffen into hard needles.
That’s how your habits develop. Let’s say you’ve begun to say mean things or to use bad language. If you don’t break those habits soon, they’ll grow stronger. Eventually you’ll find it almost impossible to make your tongue say only what it should. That’s why it’s important to set high standards very early in life.
From the time he was little, King David tried to cultivate good habits both in speech and actions. As he grew up he asked God to show him what was right and wrong. He said to God, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin.” You can do that too.
TALK BACK: What steps must you take to change a bad habit?
Elaine Egbert, Nature in a Nutshell: Daily Devotions for Juniors, 191.
The point
The prickly-pear cactus's spines, which harden with age, illustrate how bad habits become stronger if not broken early, using King David's example of guarding his tongue.
The lesson
Bad habits get harder to break the longer you keep them, so start early and ask God to help you speak and act kindly.