The ability to be consistent!
The Lord is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever. We are told this often in scripture and it is a good thing we are. It is this attribute that allows us, His children, to have enough faith in Him to lay hold upon eternal life and to receive all of the earthly blessings that he may have in store for us. Without consistency, God would cease to be God. We wouldn't know what to expect. It would be miserable.
If only being consistently inconsistent were consistent enough, then I would be in good shape. However, it is being consistently consistent that really counts. Consistency, in my opinion, is closely linked with integrity. Integrity has many facets, but one of them is that someone who has integrity must be consistent. Integrity never sleeps. You lose all of your integrity if you mess up once. One lie, and once again God would cease to be God. Our integrity as individuals demands that we consistently be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, and virtuous. Consistent people don't get a break from being consistent, they must continue always. Consistency is the essence of enduring to the end and developing that godly attribute of "changing not".
My Dad has given me one of the most powerful examples in my life of being consistent. Every morning was the same. Countless times I would wake up and find him hovering over the scriptures in his office. He was always in his robe and his hair had obviously gotten up with him as it nearly always was in some sort of disarray. After his scripture study he would shave every single day with shaving cream and the whole works. My dad was clockwork. When I think of consistency I think of him. He truly understood the value of doing certain activities day in and day out. That consistency brought comfort to his children and family. We knew what to expect. We understood it to be the way things were.
If we all could develop that kind of consistency - we would all have developed a godly attribute. Is it not because we know what to expect in God that we have faith in him? Is not not knowing how and what God will do consistently a great comfort in our lives. There is a real power in living a consistent, righteous life.
The prophets and apostles throughout the ages of begged, pleaded, and encouraged us to live consistent lives. Daily scripture study. Daily prayer. Weekly family home evening. Weekly church. Weekly sacrament.
Most recently Richard G. Scott begged us to be consistent in our choices and our actions. In the Oct. 2010 conference talk he spoke of the blessings of being consistent and the need to make the right choices over and over again - not just once in awhile. Righteousness and consistency are inseparably connected. You can not be righteous without being consistent also. We have so many tools at our disposal to help us develop consistent habits that will hopefully spur us into consistent decision making.
My dad has always said the repetition is the mother of all learning. Perhaps it is also the mother of consistency. Which then would follow that it is the mother of righteousness. Perhaps I have beat a dead horse with this post - but at least it was consistent if not repetitious.
