Devotion

The dictionary tells us that devotion is ..."commitment to some purpose. "

This commitment can be on several levels. Our spiritual commitment, our commitment to family, a way of living, and perhaps even a commitment to keeping our home in order. When you look at it in pieces like that, the individual aspects of devotion, you can start to see that they should all fit, have the same foundation to motivate us.
We all know what its like to do something without devotion, it sort of comes out half hearted. You see this in parenting quite often in the stores. Children misbehaving, or begging for something, the parents say to the child, "behave or I'll. . ." or maybe there is the "I am going to count to 3" only they count to three about 5 times. The child sees no commitment to the parents purpose, and in the quiet moments of that child's life, they see, no commitment is really no devotion to the purpose of having the child obey the rules. Same goes for begging for a new toy the parent really doesn't want to purchase. The child begs, the parent says no, the child begs more and more and the parent, not really committed to the purpose, showing no real devotion to teaching moderation or temperance in spending, caves in and the child learns a lesson of, there is no real purpose in what the parent first said.

Now lets carry this to our eating, our spending, our desire to speak kindly to our loved ones, or even our devotion to God.