The Power of Consistency

The Power of Consistency

I woke up this morning with three words in my heart; growth, consistency and persistence. I knew I had to string them together in the place of prayer and meditation.
 Luke 18: 1-5 The Message :

1-3 "Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’

4-5 “He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”

Growth is defined as the act or process or a manner of growing; development, gradual increase. I love the last part of the definition, gradual increase. A lot of times we want to experience growth overnight, all of a sudden. We talk about the microwave generation, put it in and its out and ready. I have reduced my use of microwave oven because I am not always satisfied with the end result even though it is very fast. Growth in itself connotes a process of increasing over time.

Consistency is steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, condition of cohering or holding together and retaining form, solidity or firmness.

Persistence: doggedness, continued effort or existence.
God expects us to grow, increase and become better at everything we do and most especially our relationship. I was putting an equation together as I wrote this
Consistency + Persistence = Growth

How often are we in a hurry? Wanting to get to the end of the race and if what you are working at does not seem to yield immediate result, you dump it and go to the next new thing. Most times, that fails to yield immediate result and you dump and go. After 10 years of dumping and running you find out that you can not lay your hands or show any meaningful growth or productivity. Meanwhile, someone who has patiently stayed and worked at something will have result to show. This is not limited to career or business but also in our marriage relationship. How many times have you questioned the rightness of your choice in marrying your spouse? Perhaps your friend’s wife is quiet, keeps the house, hardly goes out? Your own wife is the life of any gathering, always involved in one thing or the other, you wonder why she can not be like your friend’s wife...According to your own judgement, your husband is the worse man on planet earth and you wonder why you had the misfortune of marrying him...hmmm you must have  heard the saying “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure”, if you lose your heaven ordained spouse in the name of fault finding, you will never get it right till you rest in peace.

Marriage was designed to be a life time thing and when you walk and work with God, he gives you a life time guarantee on your relationship. Every relationship will go through its own phase of challenges, learning and flourishing. You can not omit one phase and expect to get to the other because the phases are interdependent,  one leads to the other just like the different phases of metamorphosis. Consistent prayer will give you the direction you need to travel when you are going through each phase. Not giving up too soon, keeping at it and believing in your mind that this man/woman is the right one God has given me and I can only grow when I have allowed patience to have its work in me.

Persistence: continued effort at listening, communicating, adjusting to each others strength and weaknesses as well as minding your manners, appreciation for the little things done for you all add up to help you retain your form or solidity in your marriage relationship. Little as these qualities seem, when they are lacking, over the years, resentment, disrespect, selfishness take over. Therefore, instead of working for each other's good you work to destroy the other person so you can win.

May I chip in here that in a marriage relationship, when you have your differences, quarrels, disagreements and your point is accepted at the end of the day, you have not won because it is not a battle or game, you have just successfully agreed on a way to move forward. Marriage is teamwork not competition. When you set out the goal you want to achieve and you have closed in on it, that is growth! It is not when you compare yourself with your friend, brethren, siblings or contemporaries that you measure growth. You must set goal and work hard towards it.  
Consistency guides your growth when you are persistent and you are able to achieve your set goal.
Shalom~!