I’m learning that in nearly every area of life, consistency matters.
In our home, we don’t have a dishwasher, so we recently came up with a schedule for the six of us in our family to each take a day Mon-Sat to be responsible for washing the dishes. What used to pile up for days at a time, leaving quite a mountainous task for one not-so-lucky family member, has now become a very small daily task requiring just a few minutes per person each week. Our daily consistency has paid off with less stress for everyone and more cleanliness for our home.
Another household task that I personally enjoy is taking care of our lawn. Mowing our yard is a relaxing and refreshing weekly routine. However, over the summer, when we would be gone for multiple weeks back to back, there were times when the lawn would out of necessity go un-mowed for multiple weeks at a time. I would return to a task far bigger and far less enjoyable than normal. In those moments, I was reminded how my weekly mowing consistency definitely has its benefits.
I find this principle of consistency playing itself out in many other areas of daily life as well – exercising, making healthy food choices, disciplining my children. When I fail to maintain consistency in any important area of life, it only makes my job twice as hard on the back end when I finally “get around to it”.
DOUBLE WORK…
Just like doing a week’s worth of dishes feels like never-ending torture, and mowing the grass becomes far less enjoyable if I wait an extra week, a lack of consistency in so many other areas of life actually makes things harder by creating “double work” for myself.
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When as a parent, I fail to enforce my expectations with my children, my lack of consistency sets a dangerous precedent in their mind, making my job even harder the next time I try to enforce it.
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When as a husband, I don’t make time to consistently date my wife, speak life into her, and prioritize her as I should, it makes daily life more difficult for the both of us.
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When as an employee, I fail to consistently show myself reliable to accomplish a task or meet expectations, my inconsistency in the small things costs me in the bigger things.
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When as a Christian, consistently spending time with the Lord becomes of secondary importance, it becomes twice as hard to get back into the routine that I know benefits me spiritually.
Consistency matters to maintain things practically, relationally, and spiritually in life. I can look at my own life and see how my lack of consistency has hindered me in so many areas time and time again. I’m sure that you can as well.
A CONSISTENT GOD…
Thankfully, we serve a God who is consistent – the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Can you imagine the utter chaos if He chose just one day not to cause the sun to rise and set? Just one day without God being consistent would change the course of history. Aren’t you thankful He’s so patient and kind even when we are inconsistent? Even though He knows and sees how we make things harder for ourselves.
Lamentations 3:22-23 The Lord’s mercies… are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
If God is faithfully consistent, may we strive, with the help of His Spirit, to be as well.
I recently read an amazing book by James Clear called Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results that addresses the need for consistency in our daily lives and habits, and how this one area of life often separates those who are more successful from those who aren’t. Here are a few big takeaways that stood out to me concerning consistency.
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Success is the product of daily habits, not once in a lifetime transformations.
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We often dismiss small changes or habits because they don’t seem to matter in the moment.
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You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
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Goals are good but systems are better. Because systems are the systematic way that we accomplish goals.
EASY OR HARD WAY?…
How much harder we make it to be consistent and keep things maintained because we don’t have a system, a plan to follow, a dedicated process to keep us on track, and because we simply dismiss the small daily opportunities to be consistent as insignificant. Yet we know that nothing could be further from the truth.
Consistency, or the lack thereof, has the potential to affect every single area of our lives for the good or the bad.
Consistency matters. God’s consistency in the world is in direct relation to His character and His plan. So what makes us think that we can be consistent without the help of His Spirit to guide us and without a practical plan ourselves?
The easiest way to lose your way in any area of life is to simply, yet gradually, veer off course. You don’t realize you’re off the path until you notice you’re much farther away from your goal than you’d ever have thought, whether in a marriage, a family, one’s parenting, or one’s relationship with God. Consistency matters and our lack of consistency creates unnecessary ‘double work’ in our lives.
So, here’s the big question for you today – In what areas of your life are you creating double work because of your lack of consistency? (Yes, the areas that came to mind as you were reading this. Those ones. 🙂) And what will you do to starting today to prove that consistency matters to you and for those you love?
